I definitely had to do a double-take when I saw that Singapore Airlines would be reducing its fuel surcharges in response to lower fuel prices. Shocking, isn’t it?
According to Business Travel Guru, they aren’t all going down. Short-haul flights drop from $40 to $36 and medium-hauls drop from $110 to $100 while long-haul doesn’t change. But this is still a welcome, and smart, move.
When it comes to fuel surcharges, most American believe that it’s just a way to get more revenue out of them and it doesn’t actually correlate to fuel. That’s not entirely true. Fuel surcharges have gone up and down, but they tend to lag changes in fuel price on the way down, as you might expect.
So for an airline to actually move the surcharge in line with fuel prices changes, it makes their claim that it’s actually a fuel surcharge more credible. Will consumers be more receptive next time it goes up for an airline like this? Well, nobody is ever receptive to price increases, but I think it’s at least a clear message about why it’s happening, and that’s important.
