'Airline fuel surcharges objectionable'
Despite the extremely low oil price, the majority of airlines still pass on fuel surcharges to passengers.
This has emerged from research by business travel organization VCK Travel. Companies that fly from Amsterdam were scrutinized. The survey also shows that Emirates has the highest fuel surcharges.
“The fuel surcharge is ethically reprehensible,” says Ed Berrevoets, director of VCK Travel. “When the oil price rose so fast ten years ago that it was impossible to hedge against it, the fuel surcharge was introduced. This fuel surcharge was to keep flying profitable and affordable at a time when oil prices were extremely high. The airlines seem to be deliberately ignoring that it was a temporary surcharge at the time. Fuel is already calculated in the ticket price and now the traveler pays extra for it. If you need extra surcharges in order to fly profitably with these low oil prices, then you need to take a more critical look at your own business model. Otherwise the traveler is the victim.'
VCK Travel's research shows that in many cases the term 'fuel surcharge' has been replaced by Carrier Imposed Surcharge for the identical amount. This indicates that the fuel surcharge has not actually expired. It is also unclear what this means for surcharge and why the costs are not simply included in the ticket price. That would be less confusing for the traveler, according to VCK Travel.
In November 2015, KLM fully integrated the Carrier Imposed Surcharge for flights within Europe into the rates.
If you pay money for the flight, it really doesn't matter what you call it.
You just look at the total amount.
And you have to conclude that it has decreased in recent years.
I thought - but I'm not entirely sure - it does matter for the bonus miles.
But I haven't used it in years.
They do give a free ticket, but then you have to pay the fuel surcharge.
In that case it is therefore an artificial inflation of the value of the miles.
So they grab into the piggy bank of the frequent flyer.
Anyway, that is also the case with the airline miles in the store.
They have also become less and less valuable in the years since their introduction.
Well last year 2015 I barely saw ticket prices to Bangkok like in 2013/2014.
The average seat price on a flight has dropped somewhat, but bargains, like Etihad in 2014 with open jaw tickets for around € 400,00, were hardly there.
I usually fly KLM myself, but I was unable to book tickets for less than € 500,00 in previous years.
Despite now super cheap oil.
A few years ago you paid 700-800 Euro for the flight.
The price of flights is not only determined by the fuel.
There are also other costs (taxes and levies for example) that do increase.
Moreover, the price of kerosene does not have to keep pace with that of oil.
It just depends on what the oilman has coming out of his refinery.
Since cheap flights generally also mean MORE flights, it could very well be that the Kerosene is less available than the oil and is therefore relatively more expensive.
The crude, petroleum, is different in each extraction area.
Crude can contain many light but also heavy hydrocarbons.
People buy where profit can be made on the supply and demand market.
Kerosene is a component that is abundantly present in all crude types, so no argument to keep it expensive, keep in mind the stock of kerosene.
That is true in itself, but if you start refining a barrel of petroleum, you also make other substances besides kerosene.
The refining must be arranged in such a way that you have as little surplus as possible of substances that you cannot sell at that time.
So if the demand for kerosene is very high, you may end up with an excess of gasoline that you can't get rid of.
Now the refining process can be controlled to some extent, but not without limits.
So to counter the surplus of petrol, you can make the kerosene more expensive.
Fuel surcharges or not – that 500 euros you mentioned is of course just a low price for a return flight over such a distance.
it is a disguised way of offering the traveler a low fare. It is even so strange that Bangkok airways does NOT charge a fee for domestic flights (not allowed by the government), but it does for international flights. For example, you pay a fuel surcharge for Vientiane, which is closer than Chang Mai. Air Asia in particular has a patent on this. Sometimes the surcharges are higher than the ticket price offered. So pay attention.
And so the traveler is also used as a cash cow!
Just like the 'temporary' measure of the cook's quarter, this 'temporary' measure will never expire!
Have a good flight!
In November I booked a KLM ticket online for BKK-AMS-BKK for February/June 2016 for
total 30.460 THB. Broken down, I pay 20.450 B for the flight, 400 B for the booking fee,
8100 B for CARRIER-IMPOSED INTERNATIONAL SURCHARGE.
further 700 and 495 B for airport passenger service, 405 for security charge, 70 for Advance Passenger User Charge, 20 for Noise surcharge.
Some surcharges still seem reasonable, but the aforementioned Carrier surcharge indeed seems more
a nice bonus for KLM.
How can we protest against this? Boycott?
I flew to Thailand for the very first time in 1976 with SABENA (stopover in Bombay to refuel) and the ticket cost me just over 24.000 BEF. Now I rarely pay more than €600... or just over 24.000 old BEF.
I think the discussion about the fuel surcharge is rather irrelevant. As mentioned above, the average flight price has indeed fallen. In addition, airlines also try to make a profit from their operations.
Here's a simple example for a short European flight (BRU-TXL) with Brussels Airlines;
total price: €69,79
flight price: €3,00
taxes and surcharges: €66,79
Contrary to some here, I do understand that this airline will not fly for € 1,50 per person / per flight.
Yes, of course it is very simple. If you cancel the fuel surcharge because the price of oil has fallen sharply and also because modern aircraft engines use much less fuel. The companies admit that they have calculated too much for years. Then I say let's take a look at how high the oil price was when you introduced the fuel surcharge and let's use this starting point to calculate the fuel discount that you should now give, as well as the more economical use of the engines in the calculation. include fuel costs in the calculation. It doesn't seem that complicated to me.
Or is this too good an idea. After all, airlines would admit that they charged the customer too much. (Scammed the customer in Dutch)
Antonius
Let's just be glad that the environment/climate lobby has not yet managed to get VAT and excise duty paid on the petroleum used in civil aviation.
Many airlines buy the petroleum on forward contracts, so that the lower oil price will probably only be (partially) passed on in the course of this year.
€ 600 for 19.000 kilometers amounts to less than 3.2 cents per kilometer. That's how you look or turn it dirt cheap and one of the nice things of modern times that you shouldn't lie awake about for too long.