Fuel surcharge on domestic flights will be effective from May 30, 2018.IndiGo, the country's largest airline, on Tuesday announced the reintroduction of fuel surcharge on the back of a sharp rise in the price of Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF).
According to the budget carrier, it will reintroduce fuel surcharge on domestic flights effective from May 30, 2018.
The development assumes significance as jet fuel represents around 40 per cent of an airline's operations cost.
Further, the company said that depreciation in the Indian rupee has become an additional cost burden.Accordingly, the airline will levy a sum of Rs 200 on routes less than 1,000 km distance, and Rs 400 on routes longer than 1,000 km distance."With ATF prices in India having risen around 25 per cent in the current month compared to the same period last year, and at the highest in last three years, the airline is compelled to pass some of the increased cost burden to customers as a fuel surcharge," IndiGo's Chief Commercial Officer Sanjay Kumar was quoted as saying in a statement."In the context of the past decade, where air fares in India have reduced by nearly 50 per cent in real terms (i.e.
adjusted for inflation), we are confident that this marginal increase in the form of fuel surcharge will not have any significant adverse impact on demand."Recently, IndiGo also announced introduction of 20 new flights across its domestic network.
The airline will now operate a second daily flight from Bengaluru to Varanasi and Bengaluru to Chandigarh from July 1.
Third daily flights from Ranchi to Bengaluru and from Indore to Bengaluru will also be launched from July 1.(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)