The Hindu Business Line : Jet to decide on fuel surcharge or fare hike soon

WITH international oil prices ruling at a 13-year high, Jet Airways will decide within the next two to four weeks on whether to impose fuel surcharge or increase air fares.

``If fuel continues to stay high, we would have to consider a fuel surcharge or an increase in fares. Within the next two to four weeks, we would have to decide whether there is a need to increase fares,'' the airlines' Chief Operating Officer, Mr Peter Luethi, told Business Line.

Several leading international airlines including British Airways and the Australian airlines, Qantas, have imposed a fuel surcharge due to the sharp northward movement in international prices of oil. The international price of oil has crossed the 13-year high, $40 per barrel mark recently. The fuel bill constitutes about 30 per cent of the total costs incurred by the airlines.

Meanwhile, the airline is also examining the possibility of participating in the Government's plans to restructure and modernise the airports in Mumbai and Delhi. ``It depends a great deal on how we can participate. Airports can make an interesting source of revenue especially if we are allowed to offer services to others,'' Mr Luethi said.

On whether the decision of the low cost airline, Air Deccan, to launch flights on the metro routes would lead to a fare war, the airline official said the cool players in the market would see whether there was any dilution of traffic from there or whether the new entrant was getting passenger traffic from other streams of travellers.

``We are not unduly worried about more competition on the metro routes. If the new entrant is capable of getting new segments of travellers to start flying, then it would be good for the industry as a whole. However, if that does not happen, then we would have to look at pricing schemes,'' said Mr Luethi.

Talking about the airlines' plans to launch flights between Kolkata and Dhaka, the official said that while the airline would start the flight soon, there would be a change in timing in June.

Meanwhile, the airline's newly launched Delhi-Kathmandu flight is doing very well in ``advance booking'', airline officials said.

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