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After Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines, low-cost carrier SpiceJet Ltd is also considering to raise airfares. According to a statement from SpiceJet, the airline company will hike the fuel surcharge on air tickets by Rs200 to Rs300 in the next few days. Earlier, Jet and Kingfisher had increased their fuel surcharge by same amount.
Both Kingfisher and Jet increased the fuel surcharge by Rs 200 for routes below 750 kilometres and by Rs 300 for sectors above that. Although the private airline companies are planning to hike the airfares, the state-run Air India thinks the other way. A spokesperson of Air India confirmed that at present there is no plan to raise fuel surcharge.
Private carriers decided to increase airfares when after India’s state-run oil marketing firms raised the price of aviation turbine fuel (ATF) for domestic carriers by 6.7 percent on 16 April. The price of ATF was raised by 10 percent on 1 April, 2009. The prices of ATF account for over 40 percent of an airline’s operating cost. The rise in airfares may upset the travelers that might cause loss of business for many privately owned airline companies.
