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British Airways and Virgin Atlantic Cut Fuel Surcharges
With prices at the pump down so much over the past few weeks, people are starting to wonder why the savings have not been passed on to airline passengers. Well, British Airways finally responded to the halving of crude prices by dropping their fuel surcharge £10 to £68 on domestic flights and £109 to £96 on overseas routes. Virgin Atlantic will also institute similar price cuts. The cuts come on the heels of a price fixing controversy involving BA and VA execs. The two airlines were fined over £120 million after admitting to fixing prices on fuel surcharges. Gadling's favorite airline CEO (because he's always saying something outrageous), Michael O'Leary, tried to irk BA last week by criticizing them for not dropping their fuel surcharge after they dropped a similar charge for freight. "BA is using these high and unjustified fuel surcharges as a scam to rip off its passengers." Surely, O'Leary's comments didn't cause BA to drop the surcharges, but with the price fixing scandal still in the rear-view mirror, England's big two had to do something to get back on the good side of their customers.
[Via Sky News]
Filed under: Airlines
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
WanderingAramean Dec 19th 2008 10:00AM
This is good news, but they aren't cutting where it really hurts - long haul and premium cabins.
They're going to raise the fares to counteract these cuts, so that won't really change what we pay in most cases, but the fees will be reduced for reward flights. And if they aren't cutting the fees on premium or long-haul trips then the real value for reward flights still aren't really there.
The Asian carriers did a bit better with cutting their long-haul surcharges, but theirs were also way higher to begin with.
It is a step in the right direction, but there is still a long way to go.
http://www.wanderingaramean.com/2008/12/fuel-surcharges-rolling-back.html