Fans of the four remaining men’s college basketball teams scrambled this weekend to reach San Antonio for next Saturday’s Final Four, after a wave of regional flight cancellations and fuel-driven fare increases turned what had been months of careful trip planning into a last-minute scramble.

The disruption arrived less than 24 hours after the bracket was set, with Duke, Michigan, UConn, and Tennessee punching their tickets to the April 4 national semifinals at the Alamodome. Within hours of the matchups being announced, airlines serving the home regions of all four programs trimmed schedules or repriced inventory, citing surging jet fuel costs tied to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

Brent crude closed above $119 a barrel on Friday, its highest weekly settlement in more than two years, and jet fuel spot prices have climbed sharply in tandem. Carriers have warned for weeks that fuel input costs were forcing schedule reviews, but the timing of the cuts has landed hardest on college basketball fans now trying to converge on a single Texas city.

“We are operating in an environment where fuel is moving faster than our pricing systems can absorb it,” said Marcy Helland, a spokesperson for Southwest Airlines, which trimmed several regional Texas routes earlier in the week. “We understand the timing is painful for Final Four travelers, and we are working to add capacity where we can on routes into San Antonio and Austin.”

Southwest, which historically carries a large share of leisure traffic into south Texas, has cut roughly a dozen short-haul flights between San Antonio and smaller Texas markets through April 6, according to the airline. The carrier said it had redeployed some aircraft to longer routes where higher load factors offset rising fuel bills.

The cuts have left fans of the four Final Four programs facing some of the steepest fare jumps of the postseason. Travel agents reported sold-out cabins on most nonstop routings from Detroit, Raleigh-Durham, Knoxville, and Hartford-area airports into San Antonio. Connecting itineraries through Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, and Charlotte have also tightened sharply.

Megan Carruthers, a 41-year-old physical therapist from Maryville, Tenn., said she had been holding a $400 round-trip ticket from Knoxville for weeks, contingent on the Volunteers’ run. When her connecting leg out of Atlanta was cancelled Friday night, she rebooked through Houston for $1,400.

“I’m not missing this game, but $1,400 is more than my hotel,” Carruthers said. “I keep telling myself I’d pay it twice if Tennessee wins a title. Ask me again Monday.”

University travel offices reported a surge of calls from boosters and family members of players over the weekend. Beth Ann Powers, who directs travel logistics for the University of Connecticut athletic department, said the school had locked in charter capacity for its team and official party last week but was helping families navigate commercial options.

“Storrs is not an easy place to fly out of in the best of weeks,” Powers said, noting that Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks is the primary option for fans. “When you layer on fuel prices and a Final Four on short notice, the math gets very difficult very quickly.”

Detroit Metropolitan Airport, the main gateway for Michigan fans, has seen two regional carriers reduce frequencies on routes into Texas this week. A spokesperson for the Wayne County Airport Authority said overall departures remained close to schedule but warned of “elevated standby volumes” through the weekend of April 4.

At Raleigh-Durham International, Duke fans encountered a similar pattern. American Airlines, which operates the bulk of nonstop service from RDU to Dallas-Fort Worth, said it had not cancelled flights but acknowledged that fares had climbed in response to demand and fuel.

“Our teams are doing everything possible to accommodate fans heading to San Antonio,” said Daniel Ruiz, an American Airlines spokesperson. “We added a larger aircraft on one Dallas rotation Thursday and are evaluating additional upgauges through Monday.”

The NCAA briefly weighed contingency planning earlier in the week as the scope of the disruption became clear, two people familiar with the discussions said. Officials reviewed whether hotel blocks, ground transportation, and ticketing windows might need to be adjusted to accommodate late-arriving fans, and at one point examined whether portions of fan-facing programming could be shifted.

The organization reaffirmed Saturday that the championship schedule would proceed as planned.

“The Final Four will be played as scheduled at the Alamodome on April 4 and the national championship on April 6,” NCAA senior vice president for basketball Dan Gavitt said in a statement. “We are in close contact with the city of San Antonio, the host committee, and our airline partners to support fans traveling to Texas this week. We encourage ticket holders to monitor their itineraries closely and to arrive as early as possible.”

San Antonio officials said the city remained prepared to host one of the largest crowds the Alamodome has drawn in years. The local host committee said it had expanded shuttle service from regional airports including Austin-Bergstrom International, roughly 80 miles north, to give fans alternative arrival options.

For some fans, the workaround has meant flying into cities hundreds of miles from San Antonio and driving the remainder. Rental car inventory across central Texas tightened noticeably by Saturday afternoon, according to several booking platforms.

Bradley Knox, a UConn season-ticket holder from West Hartford, said he and three friends booked a one-way flight into Dallas Love Field on Wednesday morning and planned to drive south overnight.

“We made the Final Four. We are going,” Knox said. “I just did not think the hardest part of the trip would be getting to Texas.”

Industry analysts cautioned that fuel-driven disruption is unlikely to ease before tipoff. With Brent holding above $119 and refiners passing higher costs into jet fuel contracts, carriers are expected to keep capacity tight through the early weeks of April.

For now, the four fan bases find themselves united in an unusual way: chasing seats not only inside the Alamodome, but in the air to get there.