Overlanding and Gasoline Prices
Category: Nomad, Overlanding Travel News, Tucan Travel | May 29, 2008 By adminAs the price of diesel continues to soar the repercussions are being felt, with companies like Quantas and BA grounding flights. British Airways has said today it will increase its fuel surcharges on all tickets issued from Tuesday 3 June.
In Malaysia a fuel ban for foreigners will be imposed on Friday. The price of fuel in Europe has soared with diesel around Euro 1.3 per litre!
Will we soon start to see “surcharges” on overland trips?
update: July 2008
Nomad Tours Fuel Surcharge: Effective from 01 July 2008, The surcharging is based on the difference between the current fuel price and the price that Nomadtours expected it to be when they costed out 2008 rates last February.
Tucan: Say “we are not levying fuel surcharges on our clients and we have no plans to” So good news for Tucan customers.
Recently all Overland companies released their rates and product info for 2009. Obviously these prices are set once a year and everyone hopes that the exchange rate, supplier prices, tolls, insurance etc etc does not change too much over the forthcoming year - so they don’t lose too much money! Fuel surcharges have already been discussed and some companies will be implementing them as soon as the fuel price rises over their budgeted figures.
So short answer… yes. Fuel surcharges will have to be put in place soon.
Prices have been raised again in India by 10%. Petrol prices have been increased by five rupees a litre and diesel prices have been raised by three rupees.
Although fuel has dropped by 10 dollars a barrel, Continental Airlines is reducing capacity by 11% due to their fuel bill whilst United Airlines said that it was grounding 100 of its planes and cutting between 900 and 1,100 jobs.
The ferry companies in the UK have also introduced fuel surcharges. Stena Line is introducing a fuel surcharge on some of its routes. Customers on Irish Sea routes will pay an extra £10 per car for a single trip, while coaches face a £30 surcharge. The Dutch part of the business, which operates services between Harwich and the Hook of Holland, was reported to be considering surcharges.
The price of airfares by Air New Zealand will increase from the 17th July due to continued increase in fuel prices. Airfares sold in New Zealand for Tasman and domestic flights will rise by an average 3% while fares to North America, Asia and United Kingdom will rise by an average 5%.
The price of oil has fallen back down to $70-80 a barrel which has meant the airlines are slowly reducing their fuel surcharges. BA and Virgin have the the past few days reduced their charges with virgin reducing its charge by £13 depending on destination.. However many flights frequency have been reduced or cancelled over the past few months and the outlook is not looking good.
On a separate note Ireland have introduced an Air Travel Tax from March 2009 of 10 euros.
Qantas and Jetstar have removed domestic fuel surcharges from tickets issued on or after Thursday 1 January 2009.