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Air India will merge the fuel surcharge that it charges on domestic flights with the basic fare from April 1.
The airline’s decision was conveyed to the Travel Agents Federation of India and Travel Agents Association of India at a meeting they had with Ashwani Lohani, Air India Chairman and Managing Director, here on January 30.
Current method Currently, the total cost of a domestic flight includes airfare, tax and airline surcharges.
From April 1, a passenger taking a domestic flight will be charged an airfare and tax with the airline surcharge being merged with the airfare.
“In a way the move is a good one as many passengers complain that it is unfair to continue charging a fuel surcharge when the global price of fuel is at an all-time low,” said a Mumbai-based travel agent who attended the meeting, when asked about the rationale behind Air India’s decision.
Air India follows in the footsteps of SpiceJet, which announced the removal of the fuel surcharge from all its pricing in April 2014.
Simpler pricing The private airline consolidated this fuel surcharge as part of the base fare, a move it said was being done to make pricing and fare displays simpler and more transparent. The airline continues this practice even now.
In a way this makes it more difficult for a passenger to find out if SpiceJet is lowering or increasing its fuel surcharge when the price of aviation turbine fuel moves.
At the moment, most domestic airlines show the fuel surcharge as a separate component in ticket pricing.
Vistara is the only exception — a spokesperson for the airline said that it has not been collecting a separate fuel surcharge since inception.
A spokesperson for IndiGo said the airline had merged its basic fare and fuel surcharge in January 2015.
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