aviation fuel..current cost of?

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Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 76

Hello Gents! Anyone out there know the cost of avtur or the like these days? Many years ago it used to cost just 2bob(20p) a gallon!..Noted my local travel shop has put a £15'fuel surcharge' per person on my bill.For a 737 with 118 pax this (could?) represent the total fuel cost to Tenerife!!Are we being rippped off? Would like to know...Over to you..

Original post

Member for

19 years 5 months

Posts: 325

Oil currently costs approx $60 USD per barrell - last summer oil was between $35 and 40 per barrell. As fares have not went up becuase of competition, a fuel surcharge is a means of some airlines covering this extra expenditure on fuel.

Member for

19 years 8 months

Posts: 741

i found a website with the average Jet A fuel prices on, but it is costed out in $US.

Average Cost is $3.13 a Gallon.

But im not sure this price would be relative if an airline has aquired its fuel for the next year at a specific price or is buying on an open market.

I phoned up BP,Shell and Total about Jet A prices, and they were all a little cagey about giving prices out, and i got put on hold alot.

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 76

Thanks for your efforts I too, cannot find the actual cost..'Company Confidential' they say!.. It always has been a very volatile game..(excuse the pun)! Way back in the 50s I was involved in obtaining samples of Russian fuel from a TU 154..It turned out to be far superior in quality than any of 'ours' at the time..That caused quite a 'stir'..

Member for

19 years 8 months

Posts: 1,953

i found a website with the average Jet A fuel prices on, but it is costed out in $US

Quelle surprise! :rolleyes: That the currency its bought in, which coincidentally also makes airlines vulnerable to the cost of the dollar! :p

PS: Why not ask Mr.Alpha-One - I'm sure he'll have taken that into consideration as part of the financial planning for his airline! ;)

Member for

20 years 10 months

Posts: 2,513

Just like aircraft, airlines don't pay full price for fuel. Some airlines have hedged fuel which basically signed a contract to buy fuel for the length of the contract at a set price. It's a great deal if gas prices should go up as your fuel costs will remain the same while everyone else is paying the increased cost. Of course it can also work against you if fuel prices should drop and you're left paying your contractual higher price.

Even those that aren't hedged don't pay full price for fuel. Given the quantity that airlines buy they get discounts on the costs. Usually airlines will experience a lower fuel cost when operating out of their hubs rather than when they fill up at an outstation. It is common for airliners to carry more fuel than needed out of a hub in order to lessen the amount of fuel that needs to be bought for the return trip.

It would be tough to get a straight forward price quote from a fuel manufacturer as there is a lot of wheeling and dealing that goes on between them and airlines before they settle on a fuel price.

In some cases we've seen our fuel cost per gallon nearly triple in the last 3 years. Where we use to see fuel prices of $.65-.85/gallon now we're looking at prices around $1.80/gallon. Unfortunately we've actually seen ticket prices lower in that same amount of time not to mention taking inflation into account.

15 pounds is about $30 which seems to be a reasonable surcharge to cover the fuel cost increase. That $30 surcharge is a flat fee in most cases and it calculated to cover both short and long flights. You might feel ripped off on a short 1 hour flight but you are getting quite a deal on a 4 hour flight.

I think what is happening is that the traveling public hasn't seen a noticeable increase in ticket prices in so long that they've become a bit spoiled. Now any increase, no matter how small, is upsetting. Inflation is roughly 3% for most of the industrialized world yet ticket prices haven't kept up with that, not even close.

Adjusted for inflation a $200 ticket in 2001 would/should cost about $225 today in 2005. Now that only holds true if operational costs (ie fuel) remained the same which they haven't. So that $30 surcharge may cover the cost of the fuel but the airlines are still operating with a lower income with some operating at a loss. This is why airlines have gone to the employees looking for concessions. Since we'll never see an "employee cost" surcharge added to tickets the employees are giving up their money to permit the flat "growth" of airline tickets over the years. Bummer.

Member for

19 years 8 months

Posts: 741

Quelle surprise! :rolleyes: That the currency its bought in, which coincidentally also makes airlines vulnerable to the cost of the dollar! :p

PS: Why not ask Mr.Alpha-One - I'm sure he'll have taken that into consideration as part of the financial planning for his airline! ;)

Perhaps not everybody knows that Jet A1 is bought in $US (like me), But i dont think there was any need for the arrogance or smug-ness in your answer! :mad: