Rupee impact: Jet increases fares by steep 25 pc

Mangaloretoday/DHNS

Mumbai, Sep 4, 2013: Jet Airways today followed its smaller rival SpiceJet and hiked fares by a steep 25 per cent to mitigate the impact of the sharp fall in the rupee value and a near 15 per cent spike in oil prices of late.

"The airline has hiked its fares by 25 per cent with immediate effect," a Jet Airways source told PTI here.

 

Asked whether the hike is on fuel surcharge or base fare, the source said, "it (increase) is in total fares."

The move comes in the wake of a nearly 25 per cent fall in the rupee against the dollar and a recent 6.9 per cent hike in aviation turbine fuel, sources said.

International oil prices have been trading between USD 105 and USD 115 a barrel since the past few months and following the Syrian crisis, has seen more upward spurt.

Yesterday, cash-strapped budget carrier SpiceJet, which has been put on a cash-n-carry mode by airport operators recently, increased prices by a similar amount, citing the same reasons.

Other airlines are also likely to follow suit in the near future.

Jet fuel (ATF) prices were hiked by a steep 6.9 per cent, taking the rate to Rs 75,031 per kilolitre (KL) from September 1. This hike had come on the back of two rounds of ATF price hikes effected in July and August by oil marketing companies.

ATF prices were increased by 5.8 per cent on July 1 and by another 6.3 per cent on August 1.