Northwest Airlines is the latest to announce a major fuel surcharge for passenger tickets by announcing an $80.00 increase due to commence in January, 2009. The surcharge will apply to only part of its route structure, according to the press release on Thursday, July 31st.
By announcing this largest of fuel surcharges well in advance, the carrier sets the pace for other carriers to match and thus allow the surcharge to take hold.
I'm a little surprised Northwest published this increase in the way they did for the simple reason that their airline partners, Air France/KLM, have recently announced intent to charge fuel on the basis of distance. I would have hought that both Delta and Northwest might adopt that model in due course given both their Skyteam membership and intent to merge.
Northwest Airlines Corp. confirmed on Thursday that it will add fuel surcharges of up to $80 for many domestic round-trip tickets. The surcharge will apply to travel to about 7,000 city pairs beginning Jan. 10, Northwest spokeswoman Michelle Aguayo-Shannon said. She said Northwest is matching surcharges added by competitors in those markets. Northwest already has fuel surcharges in other markets, she said. Rick Seaney of farecompare.com wrote in a newsletter that by his count, there have been 21 fare increases this year. He did not count Northwest's surcharge as the 22nd hike because it covered less than two-thirds of Northwest's city pairs. But he said Northwest's surcharge was noteworthy because the carrier generally has not initiated fare increases. Aguayo-Shannon said Northwest did not initiate this one, either.
Airlines
have pulled back from some of the earlier increases after competitors
failed to match them. If Northwest's new surcharge sticks, it will be
the largest one on Seaney's list. The largest previous increase was a
$70 base fire hike by United in April.
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