As of January 1, Qantas passengers no longer have to pay fuel surcharges on domestic flights. However, fuel surcharges still apply for passengers travelling on international flights.
The airline had reduced domestic and international surcharges twice in recent months. As of December 23 last year, the fuel surcharge for domestic flights was reduced from A$21 (US$14) to A$18 (US$12), citing high oil and jet fuel prices.
Fuel surcharges on international flights are: A$95 (US$67) from Australia to Asia-Pacific (excluding India) and Honolulu, A$55 (US$39) to New Zealand, A$160 (US$113) to Europe and A$130 (US$92) to USA, Canada, South America, South Africa and India.
John Borghetti, executive general manager of Qantas, said the airline had been monitoring the situation since the recent reduction of fuel surcharges.
"We are responding today with the removal of the A$18 (US$12) per sector fuel surcharge that applied to all Qantas domestic and QantasLink bookings."
This move by Qantas comes amid the drop in international tourists to Australia. According to Tourism Research Australia, a business unit of Tourism Australia, a new report issued last December 30 indicates that the value of inbound tourism is forecast to fall 3.6 percent to A$24 billion (US$17 billion) in 2009, reflecting the large falls in the rate of economic growth in many of Australia’s leading inbound markets.
Peter Rajendran
