Traveling in an airplane is set to become more expensive as the cost of Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) has been hiked by nearly 16.3%. It hit the highest price of INR 1.41 lakh per kilo liter in New Delhi. This hike came into effect from yesterday, i.e, June 16, 2022. The jet fuel will approximately cost INR 1,40,092.74 per kilo liter in Mumbai, INR 1,46,215.85 per kilo liter in Chennai, and INR 1,46,322.23 per kilo liter in Kolkata.
After rallying at 91% for the past 6 months, the ATF prices have nearly doubled this year. As fuel takes up almost 50% of an airline’s operational costs, the rising jet fuel prices might affect their profits as they are still recovering from the losses incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s highly likely that the price hike announced by the Oil Marketing Companies
(OMCs) will lead the airlines to pass the burden to the passengers, which will make air travel costlier. Traveling by air is already getting expensive due to the concerns in supply amid the Russia-Ukraine crisis. The weakening of the Indian rupee against the US dollar is also affecting the cost.
It was earlier announced that SpiceJet will hike their ticket prices by nearly 10-15% to sustain operational costs, pointing out that the jet fuel prices have increased to approximately 120% in the past year. The ATF prices are revised on 1st and 16th of every month and this depends on the average cost of the international benchmark in the previous fortnight, unlike the diesel and petrol rates, which are changed almost every day.
