British Airways will increase fares by up to £60 return on Tuesday by raising its fuel surcharge on prices.
BA boss Willie Walsh warned last week that fares would rise to pay for the soaring oil price and said he expects to see a fall in demand as a result.
The carrier’s surcharge on long-haul flights over nine hours will increase by £30 each way or £60 return to £218. The surcharge on long-haul flights under nine hours will rise by £15 each way or £30 return to £156, and the short-haul surcharge will rise by £3 per flight or £6 return to £32.
All the surcharges are included in fares, as required by the Office of Fair Trading. But airlines continue to show a separate breakdown of tax and other charges.
BA brought in fuel surcharges in 2004 when the oil price was $38 a barrel. Oil was at $131 overnight, double the rate of a year ago. However, the cost of jet fuel has risen at an even faster rate.
Walsh conceded last week that surcharges were increasingly hard to justify as a separate element within fares when the oil price had been high for so long.
He said: “Surcharges were always seen as temporary adjustments to a volatile oil price. I cannot see how oil will come back to $40 a barrel in the short, medium or long term.”
All BA fares will increase from June 3.