British Airways
is to increase the fuel surcharge on its longhaul flights from Monday September 12, 2005 as a result of further rises in the price of fuel. The longhaul fuel surcharge on tickets sold and issued in the UK will increase from £24 per sector to £30 per sector (£60 return trip).ÊÊ The shorthaul fuel surcharge will remain unchanged at £8 per sector (£16 a return trip).
Martin George, British Airways’ commercial director, said:Ê“Our fuel costs remain a real burden.Ê The price of oil hit a record high of just over $70 a barrel in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

“Our fuel bill of around £1.6 billion is now our second largest cost after employee costs.Ê This latest fuel surcharge rise is very regrettable but we have little choice to pass some of our extra costs on to our customers.ÊÊ It now costs almost 400 per cent more than it did in December 2001 to fill up a plane.

“We believe that it is better to be transparent with our customers about the price of fuel by showing the level of fuel surcharge they are paying rather than hide the costs by raising fares behind the scenes like some other airlines choose to.”

As stated in the airline’s traffic and capacity statistics issued on September 5, 2005, total revenue for the year to March 2006 is expected to improve by 5.5 - 6.5 per cent.

The additional fuel surcharge only applies to tickets issued from Monday September 12, 2005. It does not apply to tickets already paid for and issued.

British Airways will look to increase its fuel surcharges to similar levels on longhaul flights sold in overseas markets.
——-