After seeing the price of oil drop dramatically earlier this year to less than $35 a barrel, the price has been creeping back up to the $70-a-barrel range. With the increase in oil, jet fuel prices rise and we passengers will see higher fuel surcharges.
Daily jet fuel prices (kerosene, cents per gallon) at New York, US Gulf Coast, Los Angeles, Amsterdam, Singapore: 05-May-09 to 14-Oct-09
These $10 holiday surcharges just announced by the major U.S. airlines are being listed as fuel surcharges.
Foreign carriers have been quicker to the raise fuel surchargesback in July, but have not increased them on routes where they compete with U.S. airlines.
But don’t worry, the legacy carriers will certainly move to raise their fuel surcharges soon on routes that they share with alliance partners. The simple fact of the matter is that the airlines can collude on these surcharges legally because of their antitrust exemption granted by DOT that allow alliances to work as a single airline in regards to prices and scheduling as long as they only deal with flights outside of the country.
Charlie Leocha is the President of Travelers United. He has been working in Washington, DC, for the past 14 years with Congress, the Department of Transportation, and industry stakeholders on travel issues. He was the first consumer representative to the Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protections appointed by the Secretary of Transportation from 2012 through 2018.
