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BA and Virgin raise fares
Airlines are raising their fares again in a bid to cover the rising cost of oil.
From next week British Airways will increase its longhaul fares by £8, taking its "fuel surcharge" to £20 for a return trip, up from £12.
Virgin Atlantic has put the same increase on its longhaul fares, but no-frills rivals say that fare increases don’t work.
For shorthaul flights booked with BA the surcharge will increase from £5 for a return ticket to £8. This is for bookings made in the UK - European travellers booking their flights outside the UK face a surcharge of E12 for a shorthaul return trip and E28 for a longhaul return trip.
The price of crude oil reached nearly $50 a barrel last week. BA says its fuel costs for the next year are estimated to be around £1.1 billion. Commercial director, Martin George said: "This is not a decision we have taken lightly but, as other airlines are finding, the continuing rise in fuel prices sadly makes these increases inevitable."
BA first introduced its fuel surcharge on May 13 to combat the rising cost of oil, and as the cost per barrel continues to increase, so has the surcharge.
Other airlines have quickly followed suit – KLM says it will increase its longhaul fares by E14 on a return ticket, taking the total surcharge to E44. It will continue to charge E26 on shorthaul return trips.
KLM says it will reduce the surcharge once the price of oil dips below $40 for 30 consecutive days.
Despite the increasing cost of oil, easyJet continues to stand by its promise not to raise its fares. In a statement the airline said:”easyJet does not believe fuel surcharges work – putting fares up simply reduces demand.”
Report by Ginny McGrath
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