British Airways has pushed up the cost of long-haul flights as high oil prices have forced it to increase its fuel surcharge.
The second raise in two months will see £10 added to economy tickets and £20 to business and first class. The rise comes into force from April 8. BA’s last fuel surcharge increase was on February 8.
The increase in ticket prices will not affect domestic and short-haul flights. The change means that the World Traveller (economy) surcharge for flights under nine hours will increase from £75 a sector to £85 and flights of more than nine hours will increase from £88 a sector to £98.
The charge on World Traveller Plus (premium economy) flights under nine hours will rise from £85 to £95 a sector and for flights of more than nine hours it will increase from £106.50 a sector to £116.50.
First and Club World flights under nine hours will seen an increase from £105 per sector to £125. On flights of more than nine hours there will be an increase from £125 per sector to £145.
BA chief financial officer Nick Swift said: “It’s with real regret that we are having to increase our long-haul fuel surcharge. As customers will know from the price at the petrol pumps, the cost of fuel has continued to rise significantly over the past three months. For us, fuel now represents over one third of our costs and particularly affects our long-haul flights.
“We are very aware of the wider economic pressures on our customers at the moment and we will bear the vast majority of the recent fuel price rise ourselves to keep this increase in surcharge to a minimum.”