Amid holiday rush, no change to fuel surcharge in December

Airline passengers will pay the same fuel surcharge next month amid the usual pickup in travel during the holidays.

In a recent advisory, the Civil Aeronautics Board retained the fuel surcharge at Level 7 for December.

For the entire year, this is the highest level of fuel surcharge imposed. The same rate was also implemented in January and March.

For Level 7, passengers will pay a fuel surcharge of P219 to P739 for domestic flights and P722.71 to P5,373.69 for international flights.

Fuel surcharges are additional fees by airlines to help them recover fuel costs. These are separate from the base fare, which is the actual amount paid by the passenger for his or her seat.

Next month, passengers flying from Manila to Caticlan, Legaspi, Kalibo and Roxas will pay a fuel surcharge of P346 while those going to Iloilo, Bacolod, Tacloban and Puerto Princesa will be charged P459.

Applicable fuel surcharge for flights from Manila to Dumaguete, Tagbilaran, Surigao and Siargao is P608; and to Zamboanga, Cotabato and Davao, P689. Those booking Manila-General Santos and Clark-Davao flights will pay additional P739.

Under Level 7, airlines will collect fuel surcharges of P722.71 from passengers going to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Vietnam. Those flying to China will be charged P981.26; Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia, P999.52; Indonesia, Japan and South Korea, P1,124.26; and Australia and the Middle East, P2,486.77.

Philippine Airlines serviced 11 million passengers as of end-September. INQ