CYPRUS Airways (CY) has imposed three fuel surcharges totaling €28 on ticket costs this year alone due to a skyrocketing fuel bill that is now costing the airline an extra €5 million a month.
CY spokesman Kyriacos Kyriacou said yesterday fuel costs have now surpassed labour as the airline’s biggest expense, forcing it to pass on the extra costs to passengers.
Kyriacou said the airline was trying hard not to pass on the costs to passengers because CY needed to stay competitive, but the increases were overwhelming, he said.
“Since the beginning of this year, we have paid out an extra €25 million on fuel costs,” he said.
Neither could he rule out more fuel surcharges on tickets, although he said no decision had yet been taken on a new hike.
“Fuel costs have become the biggest expense of Cyprus Airways, even more than labour costs,” said Kyriacou. “And it keeps going up and up.”
One thing is clear, each time a fuel surcharge has been added to the cost of a CY ticket this year, it has grown larger.
CY added €3 per passenger each way in February this year. This was followed by another increase in March of €4 per person each way. The last increase was on May 19 and totaled €7 each way. Passengers who paid for the tickets before the surcharge came into force can expect to be billed any extra charges applicable by the date of travel.
This brings the total so far this year to €14 each way or €28 on a return ticket.
“Like all airlines, not just Cyprus Airways, the surcharge is passed on to passengers. An airline can’t just absorb it because you have to remain competitive,” said Kyriacou. “We are hoping not to have to increase it again.”
Still more bad news for passengers emerged yesterday from the annual conference of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in Istanbul.
IATA director general Giovanni Bisignani, forecasting billions in losses to the airline industry, said the outlook was “grim at best”, while warning that more airlines were likely to start charging extra for baggage and refreshments, and even paying to check in.
Willie Walsh, the boss at British Airways (BA), which recently added a fuel surcharge of £60 sterling to the cost of long-distance return flights, warned that “the era of cheap flights is over” due to spiralling fuel costs.
“It will be £20 for a bag, £10 for a meal, you are going to see much more of that. I think charging for meals will become standard practice. My guess is that fares will have to rise to a realistic level,” he was quoted as saying in a British newspaper.
But CY’s Kyriacou said he did not foresee the national carrier resorting to charging for bags or refreshments. “There are airlines that will charge for a glass of water,” he said, calling it ridiculous. “There are no plans to charge passengers for food and bags.”
One way airlines have been attempting to cut costs is the advent this year of 100 per cent electronic ticketing, which came into force on Monday.
Kyriacou said CY was 90 per cent compliant overall. On EU routes the airline is 100 per cent compliant but there are still some Middle Eastern routes that are not fully online yet, he said.
IATA estimates that the end of paper tickets will save the industry $3 billion each year, and save 50,000 trees annually. Paper tickets cost the airlines $10 each compared to $1 for an e-ticket.
