Jet fuel prices crash, but airlines’ surcharge soars

New Delhi: Airlines continue to levy a hefty Rs 2,700 surcharge per ticket despite a crash in jet fuel prices by more than 50 per cent in the last six months. In fact, the surcharge today is almost four times what it was exactly two years back when aviation turbine fuel prices stood at Rs 36,150 per kilo litre in Delhi during December 2006.
This has not gone unnoticed by Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, who today asked airlines to prune fares and give a fillip to passenger traffic that has dipped 1.94 per cent in the first 10 months of this calendar year. “It is imperative (on the part of airlines) to respond, now that ATF rates have been brought down,” said Patel outside Parliament.
ATF prices today are actually lower than the December 2006 price levels of Rs 36,000 per kilolitre in Delhi. The surcharge on a long haul (over 750 km) air ticket was about Rs 750 then. Now, it is Rs 2,700, even after airlines cut the surcharge by Rs 400 last week. On short haul (less than 750 km) flights, the surcharge today is Rs 1,950.
While the concept of fuel surcharge is not really new, airlines withdrew the surcharge based on ATF prices. But in the last four years, surcharges have become a part of the ticket cost and more often than not are higher than the basic fare itself. So much so that the surcharge is 800 per cent higher when compared with a surcharge of Rs 300 on long haul flights in early 2006, when jet fuel cost Rs 40,408.02 per kilolitre in New Delhi.
17/12/08 Smita Aggarwal/Indian Express

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Dec 2008