Qantas International has today (7 January) announced that it will increase fuel surcharges on international routes from 17 January.
The airline is blaming the increase on record fuel prices - and is not the first to hike prices for this reason - British Airways (BA), Virgin Atlantic, Japan Airlines and Air France-KLM all did so last year.
”The price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil passed $100 (”50) a barrel last week, and Singapore Jets fuel is currently trading at around $114 (”57) a barrel,” said Qantas executive general manager, John Borghetti.
The carrier”s new one-way fuel surcharges will be:
- UK and Europe ” $210 (”106), up $25 (”12.60)
- Mainland USA , Canada, South America, South Africa and India - $165 (”83), up $20 (”10)
- Asia, Pacific, Honolulu - $120 (”60), up $15 (”7.60)
- New Zealand - $70 (”35), up $10 (”5)
Borghetti said there would be no change to the airline”s existing Australian and New Zealand domestic surcharges at this stage.
Yesterday United Airlines also said it was raising fares to offset fuel costs. It is the second-biggest US carrier and a significant competitor with UK airlines on transatlantic routes ” but it is unclear whether or not the latter will follow suit and raise charges again.
Virgin said it would only do so if prices remained at this level for a sustained period - ”We raised our surcharge in December from ”48 to ”58 for long-haul but at the moment we have no plans to change it again,” a spokeswoman told ABTN.
BA said it has no further plans to raise its fuel levy, but keeps surcharges ”under constant review.”