Airlines likely to bump up fares a bit on fuel hike

Bangalore: Airlines are considering fuel surcharge hike after aviation turbine fuel (ATF) scaled up 12%, or Rs 4,000 per kilolitre, on Monday.
The latest hike by oil marketing companies comes after two price increases early this month and a hike mid-last month.
A senior executive of a leading budget airline said they cannot ignore the latest increase in the ATF price. "There will be something (hike in fuel charges) for sure because we have not reacted to the last two price revisions by the oil marketing companies. If you look at the cumulative increase in ATF prices in the last one month, it comes to around 20%," he said.
Full-service carrier Kingfisher Airlines also put out a statement saying it will soon take a call on the price rise. "We are examining the impact of the latest ATF prices and will take a view shortly," it said.
However, any upward movement of the fuel surcharge would be lower than the proportion of the ATF price hike.
State-owned Air India has decided to wait and watch before taking a final call. Jitendra Bhargava, official spokesperson of Air India, said: "We have to take care of our losses and rising costs. All this will have to be looked at to study the impact of rise in ATF prices."
A Jet Airways spokesperson said the full-service airline has not taken any decision on increasing the fuel surcharge.
16/06/09 Praveena Sharma/Daliy News & Analysis

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Jun 2009