Avelo Airlines founder and CEO Andrew Levy said surging fuel prices have climbed back to “uncomfortably high” levels, creating cost pressures for the ultra-low-cost carrier and raising the prospect the airline will have to pass some of those costs on to travelers.

In an interview with FOX Business, Levy said higher fuel prices tied to the Iran conflict are “the latest issue” confronting the airline industry, with costs climbing sharply in recent weeks.

“We’ve been there before, earlier in the period of the year when this conflict began, and then things moderated,” Levy said. “Now we’re back up to levels that are, you know, I’ll just call them uncomfortably high.”

The global average jet fuel price rose 9% from the previous week to $171.01 per barrel last week, according to the International Air Transport Association, reflecting mounting supply concerns after attacks along Middle East shipping routes disrupted markets, Reuters reported.

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Avelo Airlines founder and CEO Andrew Levy told FOX Business that surging fuel prices have climbed back to “uncomfortably high” levels. (FOX Business)

Levy, who previously co-founded Allegiant Air and later served as chief financial officer of United Airlines, said Avelo will ultimately have to pass at least some of those higher costs on to customers.

“At the end of the day, we have to be able to pass these costs onto our customers,” he said.

Levy is not alone in warning about rising fuel costs. Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary said Thursday that airfares could rise “significantly” if oil prices remain elevated, according to Reuters.

However, despite the higher fuel bill, Levy said demand at Avelo has remained resilient.

“We had a very, very strong summer even with high fuel prices. We’ll see what fuel looks like in the fall,” Levy said. “Certainly there’s been a lot of other costs, inflation over the past few years, which has added to our challenges, but that’s really nothing new, and we’ll keep powering through that.

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Houston-based Avelo, which launched in April 2021, primarily serves what Levy described as the “personal traveler.” (Avelo Airlines)

“Fuel is what’s got our attention more than anything right now.”

Houston-based Avelo, which launched in April 2021, primarily serves what Levy described as the “personal traveler,” those paying for their own trips to visit friends and family, take vacations or attend special events, a customer base he said is especially sensitive to airfare increases.

“Everybody has a price at which they’re going to travel either more often or less often, and so we have to be mindful of that,” Levy said.

Avelo remains committed to the strategy that has fueled its growth by serving secondary airports near major metropolitan areas instead of larger hub airports, according to Levy.

“Our complete focus is targeting the residents that live near secondary airports of large metropolitan areas,” Levy said, adding that those smaller airports can provide travelers with a more convenient, less stressful experience.

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Avelo recently extended its booking schedule through April 2027 and serves more than 35 destinations.  (Avelo Airlines)

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The airline recently extended its booking schedule through April 2027 and now serves more than 35 destinations. 

It is also preparing to launch commercial service from McKinney National Airport in Texas on Nov. 11.

Looking ahead, Levy said Avelo plans to continue expanding its fleet with additional Boeing 737 aircraft before taking delivery of its first Embraer E195-E2 jets beginning in 2028.

“Lots of exciting things ahead of us, and we’re just looking forward to finishing the year strong,” Levy said.

Anthropic’s chief executive has urged the artificial intelligence industry to slow the pace of development, warning that AI could cause hundreds of billions of dollars in damage to the world economy within six to 12 months.

Dario Amodei, 43, wrote in an open letter that the technology had been “advancing drastically faster” since the summer and could become capable of taking over the “entire internet”.

“Left unchecked, it could outrun our ability to understand and control these systems, and so must be pursued very carefully, if at all,” he wrote.

Elon Musk and Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, both declared their support for the essay. “I agree with Dario that we need to pace the frontier,” Altman, 41, posted. Musk, who runs xAI, said: “Dario is right.”

OpenAI pushes its listing into 2027

Altman told Fortune in an interview published yesterday that OpenAI would not float until 2027. Markets had initially expected the company to go public this year, after it submitted the requisite IPO paperwork in June.

“I actually think that, given everything happening with safety, right now would be an ill-advised moment to go public, and we don’t feel pressure on that,” Altman said. “I would say not 2026, yeah. We got a lot of stuff to do.”

Business Matters reported in May that Altman had retreated from his earlier warnings about an AI jobs apocalypse, admitting he had been “pretty wrong”.

Three steps and a unilateral commitment

Amodei, a former academic researcher who co-founded Anthropic with his younger sister Daniela in 2021, set out a three-step plan to control the technology. He said it would require “industry-wide” and “global” co-ordination.

The proposals include a requirement that every leading AI company establish a team of “third-party evaluators” to report incidents and verify safety measures. “Anthropic is unilaterally committing to this step now,” he said.

Amodei, who holds a PhD in biophysics and computational neuroscience from Princeton and is the son of an Italian leather craftsman, wrote: “I have worked on AI for the last 12 years because I believe it could dramatically raise the quality of human life.

“Carefully wielded, AI can be the latest in a long line of technological miracles that have uplifted and ennobled humanity.”

He added: “But like many technologies before it, AI brings risks, and because it is such a powerful technology, these risks are serious. A race to the bottom, spurred by commercial incentives, can make these risks more acute.”

He went on: “We must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models. Progress will still seem fast, and we must make wise use of the time we gain.”

The letter follows a warning from Anthropic on Thursday that it had identified and thwarted “malicious” efforts to use its Claude model for activity that could support the development of biological weapons. The company said in its latest threat intelligence report that such misuse could have “catastrophic consequences”.

In Britain, Business Matters reported in June that Downing Street was lobbying Washington for an exemption from a US ban on foreign access to Anthropic’s most advanced models, a restriction the AI minister, Kanishka Narayan, said had cut Britain off from the most advanced AI in the world.

Business Matters also reported on 9 September that Anthropic did not submit its Claude Mythos 5.1 model to the UK AI Security Institute before release, the first time the company had bypassed the British body when launching a model.

About the author

Amy Ingham

Amy Ingham is a reporter at Business Matters, covering UK business news with a focus on breaking news, business policy, late payments and insolvency. She joined the magazine in 2026 after completing the NCTJ Diploma in Journalism at Harlow College’s journalism school. Her recent reporting includes British Steel’s nationalisation and its impact on SME suppliers, the decline in late payments by large firms, and Insolvency Service director disqualifications. Reach her at aingham@cbmeg.co.uk.

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Fans at the Irish Open cheered President Donald Trump after he announced the end of U.S. tariffs on Irish whiskey on Sunday.

Trump made the announcement while speaking at the award ceremony for the open, which was played at the Trump International Golf Club in Doonbeg, Ireland.

“Everybody’s been bugging me, saying, would you do me a favor? It’s so unfair what’s going on. Could you possibly take the tariffs off of Irish whiskey?” Trump said. “And I said, on behalf of the United States of America, I am going to take the tariffs off of Irish whiskey.”

The crowd reacted with huge applause and chants of “USA.”

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President Donald Trump gestures during the Amgen Irish Open 2026, at Trump International Golf Links in Doonbeg, County Clare, Ireland, Sept. 13, 2026.  (Reuters/Cathal McNaughton / Reuters Photos)

Trump also congratulated open winner Shane Lowry, who took home the victory for Ireland in a dominant fashion with an 11-shot lead.

Trump said he made a last minute decision to stay and “watch Shane win” on Saturday night.

The president has spent several days touring Ireland in anticipation of this weekend’s event. He met with Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin on Saturday and voiced his support for Irish unification.

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President Donald Trump applauds during the Amgen Irish Open 2026, at Trump International Golf Links in Doonbeg, County Clare, Ireland, Sept.13, 2026. (Reuters/Cathal McNaughton / Reuters Photos)

The Republic of Ireland gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1922, while Northern Ireland, established in 1921, has remained part of the U.K.

“I don’t want to cause any problems, but I will tell you, I’d love to see it unified. I have friends on both sides, great people. They’re Irish people. How can they be bad, right?” Trump said in Dublin while on stage with Ireland’s prime minister, Micheál Martin. “I’d like to see a unified country. I think it would be a great feather in everybody’s cap if that happened. It’s going to happen eventually.”

He added that the U.K. “will have something to say about it obviously,” but reiterated that unification would be a “great thing.”

WASHINGTON, DC – MARCH 12: U.S. President Donald Trump and Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin speak to journalists ahead of meetings in the Oval Office at the White House on March 12, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images / Getty Images)

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British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said in a statement that the U.K. government’s stance on reunification remains unchanged.

“I am not aware ​that there is majority public support for ‌another ⁠referendum, and until that changes, there will not be one,” Burnham told reporters in Parliament, according to Reuters.

This is a developing story. Check back soon for updates.

Reform UK has told the private-sector backers of the Peak Cluster carbon capture and storage scheme that it will block planning applications for the project if the party gets into government.

The warning came in a letter from Richard Tice, the party’s deputy leader, and the Reform leaders of Staffordshire and Derbyshire county councils.

The letter said the proposed pipeline would “cut through swathes of greenbelt land, desecrating the countryside” and would interfere with wildlife and sites of special scientific interest. The signatories called the scheme a “net zero vanity project”, the cost of which would “balloon astronomically before the project’s completion”.

Tice, who has previously urged the energy industry to abandon net zero targets, has also warned renewable developers that subsidies would be withdrawn under a Reform government.

What the project involves

Peak Cluster is designed to capture carbon dioxide from four cement and lime producers on three sites in Staffordshire and Derbyshire, and to transport and store it beneath the Irish Sea. Cement production is one of the single biggest contributors to global warming.

Carbon capture technology would be fitted to Holcim’s Cauldon plant, Tarmac’s Tunstead cement plant, Buxton Lime’s Tunstead lime plant and Breedon’s Hope plant.

The carbon dioxide would be carried through a 125-mile underground pipeline to Morecambe Net Zero, a storage facility off the coast of Barrow-in-Furness operated as a joint venture between Spirit Energy and its shareholders Centrica, the FTSE 100 energy group, and Stadtwerke München.

Peak Cluster says the scheme would prevent more than 3m tonnes of carbon dioxide a year entering the atmosphere, and that 40 per cent of the UK’s cement and lime is produced in Derbyshire and Staffordshire.

The National Wealth Fund, the state investment vehicle that said in January it would raise its annual investment to about £5bn, announced a £28.6m cornerstone investment in the project in July 2025.

The total £59.6m equity raise also includes investment through a joint venture between a subsidiary of Sumitomo Corporation and Progressive Energy, as well as Tarmac, part of CRH, Breedon, the London-listed group, Holcim, the Swiss multinational, and SigmaRoc, the AIM-listed company which owns Buxton Lime.

Backers defend the scheme

David Parkin, chief executive of Peak Cluster, said the UK had to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, adding: “Cancelling Peak Cluster would put a vital British industry at greater risk and leave us vulnerable to a dependency on imported cement and lime.

“We believe the right response to the challenges facing the UK is to invest in our own industry, right here in Britain, not walk away from it.”

The project’s backers have said it will help secure the future of Britain’s cement and lime industries, creating jobs, cutting reliance on imports and providing building material for hospitals, homes and rail, as well as essential minerals to purify tap water and maintain healthy soil.

O’Shea, the chief executive of Centrica, has said that “by transforming the Morecambe gasfields into the UK’s largest carbon store, Spirit Energy will provide the critical infrastructure needed to decarbonise hard-to-abate industries like cement and lime”.

John Egan, the then chief executive of Peak Cluster, said in January, when an initial consultation was launched, that it would be the world’s largest cement and lime decarbonisation project.

“With cement imports having tripled in the last 20 years, and domestic production at its lowest level since the 1950s, there has never been a greater need to build a resilient, sustainable supply,” he said.

About the author

Amy Ingham

Amy Ingham is a reporter at Business Matters, covering UK business news with a focus on breaking news, business policy, late payments and insolvency. She joined the magazine in 2026 after completing the NCTJ Diploma in Journalism at Harlow College’s journalism school. Her recent reporting includes British Steel’s nationalisation and its impact on SME suppliers, the decline in late payments by large firms, and Insolvency Service director disqualifications. Reach her at aingham@cbmeg.co.uk.

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The fuel most Americans rarely think about could become a major political issue in the midterm elections after diesel prices hit a new national record and climbed above $6 per gallon.

While gasoline prices grab headlines, diesel quietly powers the trucks, farms, freight trains and heavy equipment that keep the U.S. economy moving. From the groceries on supermarket shelves to Amazon packages on doorsteps and the materials used to build new homes, diesel is embedded in nearly every step of the supply chain. 

As prices rise, businesses face higher transportation and operating costs that can ripple through the economy and push up the price of everyday goods.

Diesel averaged $3.69 per gallon in January 2025 but has since climbed to a record $6.20, according to AAA.

The price surge comes as the ongoing war between the United States and Iran continues to disrupt shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway between Iran and Oman that carries a significant share of the world’s oil and refined fuel. 

The prolonged disruption has tightened global supplies and raised concerns that diesel prices could remain elevated.

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A satellite image shows the Strait of Hormuz, a key maritime passage connecting the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman, vital for global energy supply. (Amanda Macias/Fox News Digital / Getty Images)

The pressure is not limited to the Middle East. Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy infrastructure have disrupted refinery operations, while Russia has moved to restrict diesel exports, further tightening global supplies.

Those overlapping disruptions are putting new pressure on a fuel that economists say is essential to the broader U.S. economy.

“We all focus on gasoline because, ultimately, we’re consumers and pump prices are very visible. But what we don’t think about is the price of diesel, which is the workhorse fuel for the U.S. economy and especially for key sectors,” Bernard Yaros, lead U.S. economist for Oxford Economics, previously told Fox News Digital.

“Take the food industry, for instance. Diesel powers the irrigation pumps, the tractors in the field and the trucks that bring food from the farm to your local grocery store,” Yaros added. “It’s part of every layer of food production in the U.S.”

ONE UNEXPECTED PRICE SURGE MOST AMERICANS DON’T SEE IS RAISING THE STAKES FOR TRUMP BEFORE NOVEMBER

The record diesel prices come as President Donald Trump and Republicans campaign on affordability ahead of the midterms, creating a direct test of the administration’s promises to lower energy costs. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images / Getty Images)

The price increases threaten to complicate the GOP’s affordability message as Republicans seek to maintain control of Congress in the November midterm elections.

Although diesel is not a cost most consumers see directly, higher fuel expenses can eventually raise the price of groceries, packages, building materials and other necessities.

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President Donald Trump has repeatedly pledged to lower energy costs but has acknowledged that elevated oil prices could persist until after the election, adding pressure to the GOP’s economic message.

The White House did not immediately respond to FOX Business’ request for comment.