A major airline is reportedly set to cancel over 500 flights in the coming weeks, affecting services to five UK airports and potentially impacting thousands of British tourists. Irish airline Aer Lingus is cancelling hundreds of flights to allow for "mandatory maintenance" to be carried out on aircraft, it has been reported.

The airline will pull off the flights from Dublin, Shannon, and Cork airports in Ireland, according to internal documents seen by The Irish Independent. Departures from Dublin to several major European destinations including Berlin, Zurich, Athens, Faro and Amsterdam, are set to be pulled from the schedule on various dates over the next few weeks, the report states. The documents further show that transatlantic routes to and from Seattle, San Francisco, Minneapolis-St Paul and Toronto will also be affected.

In the UK, routes to popular airports like Manchester, London Heathrow, Newcastle, Birmingham Edinburgh are likely to face the cancellations, the documents claim, with passengers rebooked onto other services.

The changes will affect flights to 30 destinations on certain routes from this week through to mid-October. However, the routes themselves are not being discontinued.

An Aer Lingus spokesperson said the changes come as the airline starts operating its planned summer schedule.

Although it isn't clear exactly how many flights would be cut, the spokesperson said the changes "apply to approximately 2%" of Aer Lingus' overall schedule.

In a statement to The Journal, an Aer Lingus spokesperson said: "Aer Lingus has commenced operating its planned summer schedule. A number of recent cancellations have been required due to mandatory maintenance on aircraft, along with a limited number of schedule adjustments.

"Where schedule adjustments are being made, the vast majority of customers are being reaccommodated on same day services."

It comes at a time when concerns are mounting over the stability of Europe's jet fuel supply.

International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol described it as "the largest energy crisis we have ever faced" arising from the disruption of oil, gas and other essential supplies through the Strait of Hormuz.

He told The Associated Press: "In the past there was a group called 'Dire Straits.' It's a dire strait now, and it is going to have major implications for the global economy. And the longer it goes, the worse it will be for the economic growth and inflation around the world.

"The consequences will mean higher petrol (gasoline) prices, higher gas prices, high electricity prices."