Flight tickets may get costlier

NEW DELHI: Flying could soon get even more expensive. Oil marketing companies on Thursday hiked aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices by the steepest ever (in one go) 16. 3% which now, for instance, costs an all-time high of Rs 1. 41 lakh per kilo litre (kl, or 1,000 litres) in Delhi. Coupled with a weaker rupee, the operating cost for Covid-ravaged airlines has shot up, some of whom now say airfare hike is inevitable to survive.

SpiceJet CMD Ajay Singh has termed these ATF prices “not sustainable” and said an immediate “minimum 10-15% increase in fares is required”. Comments from other airlines were sought and awaited till the time of going to press.

“ATF prices have increased by more than 120% since June 2021. This massive increase is not sustainable and governments, central and state, need to take urgent action to reduce taxes on ATF. We have in the last few months tried to absorb as much burden of this fuel price rise as we could,” Singh said. IndiGo said, “(Thursday’s) is the 10th straight increase since the start of 2022…. request the government to at least bring ATF under GST so that input tax credit can be availed. ”