The Hindu Business Line : Surcharge, tax can make you pay more for flying cheap

Otherwise, you may find yourself paying more than the tempting offer being made. And playing party pooper will be the taxes and surcharge that most airlines charge.

Just consider this: On the Delhi-London sector, where airlines offer a return ticket for as little as Rs 20,000, the taxes and surcharges could be Rs 8,500, with the result that you may well end up paying Rs 28,500 for the journey.

Similarly, as travel agents point out, on the Chennai-Kuala Lumpur route the taxes and surcharges can set you back by as much as Rs 3,800. And while the basic fare for a flight between Chennai-Colombo is a mere Rs 8,710, the other charges that you will have to pay could be more than half this fare (Rs 4,600), depending on the airline you choose.

On the India-US route, the decision to go through Europe could prove costly. A prominent European airline is offering a promotional fare of Rs 48,700 to the US but the taxes and surcharge on this fare work out to Rs 16,000-17,000, while the American Airlines non-stop Delhi-Chicago flight is available at Rs 57,650 plus Rs 3,500 taxes.

On why the taxes on air tickets are so high, Mr Subash Goyal, Chairman of STIC Travels, said that it was mainly due to security charges and global increase in prices of aviation turbine fuel (ATF).

Airlines officials, however, said that they have to incur costs that vary and hence they have little choice but to levy surcharge. Recently, a senior Colombo-based official of SriLankan Airlines told Business Line that despite the surcharge being charged it was barely able to meet the ballooning fuel bill. This is something that most international airlines operating out of India agree with.

"Globally, airlines review their surcharge every three or six months. For an airline, the cost of fuel could vary depending on whether the airline is allowed to hedge, the efficiency of the aircraft operated, and the distance of the flight. Therefore, the fuel surcharge that is charged per sector varies," a senior airline official said.

However, some in the industry said that the airlines should include fuel surcharge in the ticket so that passengers know the amount that they have to pay upfront.

"Ideally the fuel surcharge should be included in the fare. But in order to compete, these airlines reduce fares and impose a fuel surcharge. Ideally DGCA should ask the airlines to include all fuel costs in the fare," said Mr Keyur Joshi, co-founder and COO of Makemytrip.com.