Date:04/10/2005 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/10/04/stories/2005100404250300.htm

Back Global airlines operating from India impose Rs 300 surcharge

Ashwini Phadnis

New Delhi , Oct. 3

WITH international prices of aviation turbine fuel skyrocketing, international airlines operating out of India have imposed a Rs 300 one-time surcharge on tickets issued here. The surcharge has come into effect from October 1.

Sources told Business Line that the surcharge has been levied to compensate the airlines not only for the increase in fuel prices, but also other additional expenses that they have been incurring in the recent past.

The monies collected by the levy of this surcharge, which all airlines operating from India can impose, is to remain with them sources said.

"The new surcharge will only partly compensate the airlines for increase in prices that they have been facing. On the fuel front alone, the airlines have seen a massive increase in the amount they have had to spend in the past two years. While during 2003-04 the average fuel price was 114 cents per US gallon it averaged 159 cents per US gallon during 2004-05 and now it is averaging around 220 cents per US gallon," a senior airline official said.

The move to levy a fresh surcharge comes even as fares from India to various part of the globe have been heading southwards.

The start of the lean season for travel and increase in capacity on the India-Europe sector has seen Air India, British Airways and Jet Airways have already effected a cut in fares and bmi (British Midlands) drop fares on this sector.

Air India has already announced that a limited number of seats on its flights to London, Paris and Frankfurt would be available at a special fare of Rs 18,990 that is almost Rs 7,000 lower than the normal fare of Rs 26,900 on these sectors.

Similarly, on flights to the Far East airfares have been tumbling down.