DHL restores Gulf network, but airlines stay wary after latest strikes
The recovery of air cargo operations in the Gulf has been thrown into fresh uncertainty ...
Photo: DHL
Strong first-quarter results notwithstanding, all ears were tuned to the thoughts of DHL’s chief executive, Tobias Meyer, on jet fuel pricing and availability, as the Israeli/US war on Iran lingers, echoing recent earnings calls elsewhere.
Despite a 1.9% year-on-year drop in revenue over the three months to April, DHL Group earnings (EBIT) jumped 8.3% on the same period in 2025, falling just shy of €1.5bn ($1.7bn), driven by booming profitability in its Express division.
Mr Meyer told investors: “We’ve very good momentum, but it has been another volatile quarter, with external conditions to deal with; and while the Middle East is a relatively small part of overall group revenue, it obviously has implications.
“A worry across the industry, and more broadly regards the macroeconomic impact the situation has, for us especially this means the price of kerosene, jet fuel and diesel.”
Investors did not need encouragement to question Mr Meyer and group CFO Melanie Kreis, half their queries concerned the impact of fuel price and availability since the onset of hostilities in the Gulf, reflecting the recent UPS earnings call.
Asked if the fuel issues could be “constraining factor” on the group’s medium-term aspirations, Mr Meyer said it was important to differentiate between hubs and airports where DHL had its own infrastructure.
“At Leipzig, we have dedicated infrastructure for fuel supply, and we’ve intense dialogue and greater visibility and certainty about supply continuing, and being sufficient to fully support our operations,” he said.
“In contrast, our more bespoke locations, especially in Asia, where we do not have such a setup and very much depend on availability of fuel from local suppliers, we are finding our choices limited.”
Nonetheless, Mr Meyer added, even in these locations he thought DHL was in better shape than other airlines, noting that for regional and short-haul flights “we still have the option to tanker-in fuel,” even if this was not viable for long-haul services.
But, he said, it was obvious that a continued daily [global] shortfall of 10m to 12m barrels of crude oil would mean “something has to give at some point” – a fact not lost on several Indian carriers that have warned of service suspensions if fuel price rises continued.
The Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA) wants government intervention to address spiking fuel prices, suggesting re-implementing pandemic-era price caps or deferment of taxes – but a loss of local capacity could help DHL.
While its Global Forwarding division had a quarter to forget – a 5% year-on-year revenue drop, to €4.5bn sent earnings plummeting 18.5%, to €164m – there was a 3.8% uptick in airfreight volumes, driven largely by demand out of Asia and Latin America.
Inside the industry’s AI shift
Complete The Loadstar’s ‘State of AI in the Supply Chain’ survey — and receive the full report and data before release.
Comment on this article