Flying in New Year gets costlier

Mumbai: The year 2011 will be bringing in heavier airfares and the first step in that direction has already been taken with fuel surcharge up by Rs 100 to Rs 200 on domestic routes.
"In order to reflect the multiple recent increases in ATF, Kingfisher Airlines has increased the fuel surcharge by Rs 100-200 on domestic flights from today," said a Kingfisher Airlines spokes-person on Friday. The move came soon after state-owned oil firms hiked fuel prices by about 2% on Friday, taking up the cost of aviation turbine fuel in Mumbai to Rs 48,000. On December 15, fuel prices were hiked by 3.6%. On Friday, IndiGo, Go Air, SpiceJet and Air India confirmed that they hadn't increased fuel charge yet. Jet Airways did not comment. As has happened in the past, airlines are expected to follow suit and increase fuel charge on domestic routes.
The travel industry was also abuzz with news that fuel surcharge has been increased by some airlines on the international routes as well. Kingfisher Airlines said it hadn't done so, while the Jet Airways spokesperson refused to comment.
"Airlines have in the past, too increased charges surreptitiously. No one notices when say, the fare on a given international route goes up by a few hundred rupees. This time around, it looks like some airlines have increased fuel charge on international routes by $20," said a travel agent, requesting not to be quoted. He could not confirm on which of the routes had the charge gone up and exactly by how much.
01/01/11 Manju V/Times of India

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Jan 2011