SpiceJet hikes fuel surcharge by Rs400

Budget air carrier, SpiceJet, yesterday hiked fuel surcharge by Rs400 with immediate effect, a day after a similar move by private domestic airlines Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines.

Samyukta Shreedharan, SpiceJet chief operating officer said, ''We have increased fuel surcharge by Rs400 on our flights.''

The increase in fuel surcharge by SpiceJet comes in the wake of an over 12 per cent increase in aviation turbine fuel prices by oil marketing companies on 15 June.

Jet Airways and Kingfisher hiked fuel surcharge by Rs400 from Tuesday on all domestic sectors.

'The increase was necessitated by sharp increase in ATF prices by 33 percent since March 2009,' Jet said in a statement Wednesday morning.

With the fuel price hike by the state-run oil firms, the sixth increase since 16 March, ATF is now available at Rs36,252 per kilolitre in Delhi, an increase of Rs3,949 while in Mumbai it costs Rs37,367 per kilolitre as compared to Rs33,260 earlier.

Aviation stocks meanwhile have lost sharply with stocks like Jet Airways and Kingfisher losing over 5 per cent each.

SpiceJet, has however moved up after Thursday's announcement of hiked fuel charges. The stock surged over 6 per cent to Rs21.10 after hitting an intra-day high of Rs21.9 and a low of Rs20.35 and has recorded volumes of over 8.2 million shares on NSE.

State-run Air India also announced an increase in fuel surcharge on tickets from 19 June.

Prices of jet fuel aviation fuel have risen 33 per cent over March prices this year; fuel costs amount to nearly half of an airline's operating costs.

The economic downturn has severely hit the aviation sector as costs have increased and traffic has fallen both in the national and international segments.

The state owned Air India Ltd is said to be in a particularly badly hit with the carrier finding it difficult to even pay staff salaries on time. Other national and international carriers are expected to similarly increase fares in coming days according to industry analysts.