Air ticket prices going sky high

As vacationers bask in the northern hemisphereีs summer sun, airlines are raising fuel surcharges or warning that hikes are on the horizon because oil prices are back on the boil.

Air France-KLM said its surcharges would go up this week for the seventh time since 2004 าdue to the extremely high oil pricesำ, which are nearing US$80 (Bt3,000) a barrel.

At Air France, an increase of ค7 (Bt335) on each leg of a long-haul flight will bring the total fuel surcharge to ค116 on a roundtrip ticket between Paris and New York.

The cost of a similar KLM round-trip from Amsterdam will now include ค130 in surcharges.

The cost of short- and medium-haul flights will also increase by a smaller margin.

The two carriers are following in the slipstream of Portuguese airline TAP and Thai Airways International, which have announced supplemental charges on some routes.

Meanwhile, Japan Airlines, the biggest Asian carrier and the leading Spanish airline Iberia have reported first-quarter and first-half losses respectively owing to soaring fuel costs.

Even the thriving low-cost airline Ryanair has warned of a possible fourth-quarter loss owing to soaring oil prices.

Jet fuel has now become the single biggest expense for airlines and the sector expects to post an aggregate loss of $3 billion in 2006 despite increased traffic.

Almost all carriers except the budget airlines have passed the extra cost on to passengers.

Among other ways they hope to deal with persistently higher fuel prices is by cutting costs, with IATA president Giovanni Gisignani noting recently that าthe generalisation of electronic tickets by the end of 2007 is an excellent exampleำ.