A new surge in the cost of fuel has triggered a fresh round of fuel charges by major airlines.
BA, American Airlines, KLM and Delta Air Lines all raised their surcharges as fuel shot up to $72 a barrel by Wednesday (April 19).
BA is raising its surcharge on long haul flights from tomorrow (April 21) from £30 to £35 a sector.
The surcharge of £8 per sector on short haul flights is unchanged.
American, the world's largest airline whose fuel bill came to $5.62bn last year, said it was raising its fuel surcharge by $10 per sector to $65 on most transatlantic and transpacific routes but excluding Japan.
KLM blamed "soaring fuel prices" for its decision to increase its surcharge by 5 to 45 per sector on all long haul flights. Like BA, its short haul surcharge remains unchanged at 15 per sector.
Delta has increased its surcharges by $10 per sector on transatlantic routes except to France and Italy, by $15 on flights to India and by $19 on flights to Israel.
Martin George, BA's commercial director, said fuel prices, the carrier's second largest cost after employees, remained a "real burden."
He added: "The price of oil has risen above $70 a barrel and experts anticipate it staying at these levels for some time.
"Our annual fuel bill for 2005/2006 is expected to be some £1.6bn. We estimated previously that this would rise by £400m in 2006/2007 but at these prices, we would now expect this year's fuel bill to be £600m higher at £2.2bn."
BAA set for bidding war
A bidding war for UK airports operator BAA looked set to break out after it rejected a £9.4bn offer from a consortium led by Goldman Sachs Infrastructure Group.
BAA, which controls seven UK airports including Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted, has already turned down two lower bids of £8.75bn from Ferrovial, a Spanish construction company.
In rejecting the Goldman Sachs offer, BAA said in a statement that "it clearly fails to reflect the true value of the company."
BAA said the Goldman Sachs approach came on March 30 and since then it had had no further contact with the US investment bank.
US insurers American International Group was part of the Goldman consortium and there was speculation that General Electric was also part of the bid.