The rising cost of oil has triggered a fuel supplement of up to £40 per person to be imposed by Thomas Cook and Tui Travel.
Cook was the first to react to the soaring price of oil due to the political unrest in the Middle East, with Tui following suit.
The supplement for both operators starts at £15 per person on short haul flights (Spain, Portugal), £25 on medium haul (Egypt, Turkey, Greece) and £40 on long haul (more than seven hours).
Thomas Cook added the charge on all bookings made from yesterday (Tuesday) across all three season on sale – winter 2010-11, summer 2011 and winter 2011-12.
The company said: “As a result of the rising price of oil, and the subsequent increases in the cost of jet fuel (an increase of more than 40% in the last year), Thomas Cook has today announced that from 1st March, for all new bookings on its charter airline from the UK, a fuel supplement will apply.
“These increases are unavoidable and represent on average less than 4% increase to our average holiday price.”
Thomas Cook UK & Ireland mainstream chief executive Ian Allies said: “We’ve worked hard to keep the impact of the rising fuel costs on our holidaymakers to a minimum but the fuel levy is an unavoidable result of the rising price of oil.”
Tui is adding the charge on all new bookings from Friday March 4.