Flying to become costlier with hike in ATF prices

Private carriers will increase their fares by around Rs 100 as a result of a 4-5 per cent increase in ATF prices for domestic flights this month. With this, the fuel surcharge per ticket will increase up to Rs 1,200 for domestic passengers from the existing Rs 1,100.

However, international carriers are still indecisive about hiking their fares despite a 9 per cent increase in ATF prices.

While the national carrier Air India has decided against a hike, private carriers like Jet Airways and SpiceJet have concrete plans to increase their fuel surcharge on domestic flights.

"As a result of the increase in ATF prices, we have decided to raise the fuel surcharge by Rs 100 for our domestic flights. This will come into effect from October 3," said Jet Airways CEO, Wolfgang Prock-Shauer.

"However, there has been no decision on a surcharge hike for international flights," he added.

Jet Airways, which is the only private airline having international flights, levies international fuel surcharge in the range of $40-$120 depending on the destination. For instance, the fuel surcharge levied for operations to Asian countries is $40-$50, for the UK it is close to $80 and for the US it comes to $120.

SpiceJet executive confirmed that there would be a 100 rupee hike on their fuel surcharge as well. Deccan officials also confirmed that there would be a hike though the exact amount of increase had not been decided yet.

This is the seventh time in the year that the surcharge has been hiked by airlines as a result of the increase in ATF prices.

"Except Air India, all other airlines have decided to hike their fuel surcharge," said an industry source. Aviation fuel comprises 30-35 per cent of airlines' total operational cost.

Oil PSUs have increased aviation turbine fuel prices by Rs 1,600-1,700 for the current month, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd announced today. This means an increase of more than 3-4 per cent for domestic flights and more than 9 per cent for international flights.

Aviation fuel prices are revised at the beginning of every month, based on the average international price in the previous month. In Delhi, aviation fuel for domestic flights will now cost Rs 39,767.75 rupees per kilo litre as against Rs 38,163.23 in September a month back which is a 3.15 per cent increase. Mumbai however has seen a 4.21 per cent increase from Rs 39,441 in September to Rs 41,105 this month.

In case of international flights while Delhi has seen an 8.52 per cent increase from $712.07 to $772.78, Mumbai has seen an increase of 8.54 per cent from $706 to $766.33.