Airline boss flags possible fuel rationing in Philippines as supplies dwindle

The head of the Philippines’ flag carrier said the Southeast Asian country may need to resort to fuel rationing amid tight supplies due to the war in Iran.“We have countries saying, ‘we need to ration our fuel, we want people to tank fuel in and out.’ The reality is we’re going to have to do the same thing probably in the Philippines,” Philippine Airlines president Richard Nuttall said in an interview on Wednesday.Speaking at the Aviation Festival Asia conference in Singapore, Nuttall said the airline has “been able to secure fuel that will take us until the end of June”, which is around normal levels. “Beyond that, we don’t have visibility.”Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr said in an interview on Tuesday that grounding planes due to a shortage of jet fuel is a “distinct possibility”, as the country continues talks for additional fuel supply from nations such as China and Russia.“At the end of the day, we’re going to need people to work together to make sure that everybody has access to fuel,” Nuttall said.Marcos on Tuesday declared a state of national energy emergency that will be in force for a year to help stabilise the country’s energy supply, the first Southeast Asian nation to do so as risks from the war increase.