Virgin Atlantic and British Airways (BA) have announced cuts to their fuel surcharges as a reaction to the drop in world oil prices.

Effective from yesterday, BA has trimmed £35 from first and club services on long-haul flights of nine hours or more. Long-haul economy class passengers will see an average reduction in fuel surcharge from £192 to £132, while those on medium-haul flights of less than nine hours will have a reduction from £136 to £106.

Surcharges levied to premium economy travellers on long-haul services will drop from £230 to £170 with medium haul routes dropping from £166 to £126.

Virgin Atlantic has matched BA’s cut by also implementing a £35 reduction for its upper class passengers on long-haul flights.The carrier has also exactly mirrored BA’s cuts for economy class passengers on both long and medium-haul services. Equally, both airlines will trim business class surcharges from £266 to £196 on long-haul and from £196 to £156 on medium haul routes.

BA stated that “the reduction in the price of oil”, which now stands at around $36.50 per barrel, was the chief motivating factor for this new pricing policy.The two airlines first introduced fuel surcharges on return flights in May 2004, at a time when oil was also priced at $36.50 a barrel.

Since then, fuel surcharges have increased by up to 5,000 per cent at some airlines as the price of oil climbed to a high of $150 per barrel. It is estimated that the high price of oil led to the collapse of over 30 airlines, including Zoom and XL Airways, but the greatest threat is now said to be the decline in passenger demand.

Pakistan travellers still waiting news from Pakistani Airlines PIA and Airblue for fuel surcharge cut.

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