Jet fuel prices cut second month in a row

State-owned oil marketing companies have decided to cut aviation turbine fuel prices by 10.1-11.3 per cent in the four metropolitan cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai effective on Thursday, a senior Indian Oil official said on Wednesday. December is the second consecutive month when jet fuel prices have been cut.

In rupee terms, aviation fuel prices will come down by up to Rs 4,200 per kilolitre. "The aviation fuel prices have been cut by over Rs 4,000 per kilolitre for December due to a sharp fall in global jet fuel prices," the official said.

Indian Oil Corp's Director Finance S V Narasimhan said last week that aviation fuel prices will be cut from Thursday, as jet fuel prices had come down by $6-7 per barrel.

Unlike prices of other petroleum products like kerosene, petrol, diesel and liquefied petroleum gas, which are regulated by the government, aviation fuel is linked to global prices.

In Delhi, ATF price has been cut by Rs 4,010.58 per kilolitre to Rs 31,750.56. In Chennai, the selling price will be Rs 34,664.10 per kilolitre, compared with Rs 38,863.85 on November 1.

In November, the selling price of jet fuel had been cut by 1.8-1.9 per cent, or Rs 649-748 per kilolitre, in the four metropolitan cities.

Aviation fuel prices had been raised in July, August, September and October in line with spiralling global prices of crude oil and ATF.

In September, state-run oil companies had raised ATF price by 7.5 per cent followed by another 4.5 per cent hike in October. In August, the price had been hiked by around 1.8 per cent while in July it was increased by over 6 per cent.

ATF prices were slashed in June"�in the range of 8.7-9.6 per cent. Aviation fuel comprises around 30-35% of airlines' total operational costs.