They would need to pay me that to use Heathrow!

R James, Clifton, UK

Sarah in Hampshire, the low pound might be good news for British tourism but high oil prices are not. We live on an island and foreign visitors still have to find some way of getting here. Even ferry services from the near continent will be affected by high fuel prices.

Paul, Coventry,

The Middle East saves the planet!!

Kara Swart, London, UK

Seems reasonable to me, huge increases in variable costs must change the airlines pricing.

What is unreasonable is how those airlines show charges, BA is about the best. The others hide as much as they can and using vague terms indicate that you are not being charged when you are.

Bill, Knaresborough, UK

Great News for UK Tourism!

Sarah, Hampshire, UK

Wrong - 'cost of fuel' is not £218 - this is just the surcharge. Assuming, say, £60 already added for fuel the total is £278. Interestingly for a 9+ hr flight eg: Denver 4,670 miles, 4 people could take a small size car there and back for the same cost in UK petrol and much less using US 'gas'...!!

martin, london, uk

There's my Christmas plans for travel to the UK gone. And probably international travel in general if these trends continue. I'd already sworn off US domestic air travel due to horrendous service and the nickel and dime fees. International always provided far better value for (airfare) money.

Allison, Baltimore, MD, US

What with this and the recent T5 fiasco, BA's best bet is to start selling off its planes now. It ain't gonna need 'em in the future!

Tony Jones, Grantham, Lincs

Realy looking forward to my UK Cycling holiday.

Jim, Manchester, Gtr manchester

James, London. When did a foreign holiday become essential? It is essential my wife has a car, as she works in the community caring for people. It is essential we have a family car, so that our family can have holidays in the UK.

David Leslie, Perth, Scotland

@james "A car is NOT essential." says he in London.

With Virgin Atlantics increase between £2.50 and £16 I would hardly call it 'soaring'.

Cars and plane are essential. We live on an island. Our economy requires we move about.

Andrew, Newcastle,

I don't understand why airlines show the fuel costs as a separate charge. Why not add it in to the cost of the ticket that would be more honest & transparent!

John S. Knight, Sheffield,

The price of oil doesn't worry me. Supply and demand are facts of life. OK, OPEC may limit daily supply, but a higher power limits our global reserves.

What worries me is the array of surcharges making it impossible for the consumer to compare prices. That, governments could legislate to fix.

Alex, London,

It's always fascinating when there is a ticket price and a fuel surcharge in addition. What would the ticket buy you without the fuel? An opportunity to sit on the plane at Heathrow for 6 hours without moving??

Nick Russell, Pinner, UK

Opec could easily allay the present nonsense in speculation on oil. But who said a car wasnt essential? Try being elderly with severe arthritis and then ride a bicycle or walk a mile or two with shopping. Dont be absurd!

Phocas, Surbiton, UK

Great news for the planet and ozone layer? the fundamentals tell us that worldwide demand for scarce resources such as oil is higher than ever before. How can that be good for the environment?

steve m, newcastle upon tyne,

The ozone layer was depeleted by the use of CFCs, used in aerosols and refrigeration. Nothing whatsoever to do with the use of oil/petrol/jet fuel.

David Leslie, Perth, Scotland

Fuel surcharges cower in the shadow of the losses sustained by everyone with the shocking weakening of the exchange rate. And since the UK is in serious long term debt the £pound will remain desperately weak for a very long time to come.

jj, Cambridgeshire, UK

A holiday abroad is a luxury not a necessity. From all accounts the fuel surcharge by BA should be more and lets hope this present increase is not the last.The increase in the price of fuel is a great leveller. If nothing else and hopefully so it will make us think on how we use finite resources.

Frank Williams, Derby, England

The Middle East is NOT saving the Ozone.UAE are moving in the right direction in green efforts but their development plans are currently NOT helping the Ozone by any stretch of the imagination.An inhospitable natural landscape is being artificially forced to accommodate a large population.

Shell, London,

The Middle East is saving the Ozone Layer.

Kara Swart, London, UK

Great news for the planet I would say!

Kim, Edinburgh,

As a professional traveller, if I fly long distance economy I always take an aisle seat. It saves climbing over everyone and gives you more room.

JeffP, Newport, Wales

Ah... what a shame. All of those people who went abroad 5 times a year will have to stay at home. Some of us looked forward to them taking their badly behaved children on holiday with them. July and August will be less enjoyable with these people still in Britain and crime will increase too.

judy, Liverpool, England

Perhaps this will help conserve the earth's precious fossil fuel resources, and deter more people from frivolous foreign holidays which involve lying on foreign beaches for two weeks, and increasing their chances of contracing fatal skin cancers.

Neil, Gloucestershire, England

Three weeks before we flew to Tenerife last month the airline wrote to say that the luggage allowance had been reduced from 20kg to 15 kg. It cost an extra £15 to have 20kg or pay £6 per kg excess. We had booked the tickets ten months in advance! Another scam to get money from the traveller.

Rod, Preston,

This is great news for the environment and for improving the airport experience.

Increasing the surcharge as opposed to ticket price is a calculated move. This tactic amounts to an effective devaluation of airmiles and staff travel concessions.

steve , maida vale, london

Families are facing holiday misery this summer after big airlines sharply increased fuel surcharges on their flights, bringing the era of cheap air travel to an end.

MISERY!? What a pathetic use of the English language - think about it

Mark, Malmö, Sweden

The business model (based on the current fleet of aircraft) cannot survive long term with prices much above $80 ber barrel of oil. Furthermore the move by refiners to install more coker units to handle heavy crude will mean more expensive jet fuel. less people will be flying in future - indefinitely

Paul Smith, Edinburgh, UK

Why is the cost of fuel rising so high again ?

According to Opec, there is enough supply for world demand !

Either someone somewhere is hoarding the stuff or we, the public, are being taken for a ride with short-term profiteering surcharges.

Sam Redman, London, UK

The business model (based on the current fleet of aircraft) cannot survive long term with prices much above $80 ber barrel of oil. Furthermore the move by refiners to install more coker units to handle heavy crude will mean more expensive jet fuel. less people will be flying in future -indefinitely

John Roberts, Edinburgh, UK

I stopped flying with BA 10 years ago, they were rude, overpriced and gave a poor service. Overall an unpleasant experience. It seems that some things havent changed.

max, london, UK

Holiday crunch, holiday misery, ok very dramatic headlines, so a family of 4 will pay £240 more to fly to the west coast of the USA. May I suggest if they are taking holidays there, then they can easily afford the surcharge. If £240 is difference between going or not then you should not be going.

mark, surbiton, england

Donna - A car is NOT essential. Have you heard of buses, trains, bicycles, legs? A plane on the other hand is essential unless you can think off another method of crossing an ocean in under 2 weeks

james, london, uk

Glad I did all my global gallivanting years ago!

Am now looking for a nice comfortable cruise on a ship where I can stretch my legs and avoid all those cabin fumes, screaming children, drunk and aggresive passengers, cramped seats, etc, etc, etc!

Regards to all,


GERONIMO.

GERONIMO, LONDON, MIDDLESEX

I booked a US holiday with Virgin for 2009 via the Virgin Holidays website earlier this week and was given a 10% online booking disount. Today the basic holiday cost was the same but the discount has halved to 5%. It looks like Virgin is covering the increased fuel costs by reducing any discounts.

Mike Williams, Falkirk, Scotland

And after you finish paying for all these surcharges you end up in a country outside the GBP zone ( most probably) and notcie that the Pound exchange rate makes you 13% shorter than last year ...but we should still believe that "our economy can withstand the world economic downturn " (sic.)

thomas, Geneva, Switzerland

Donna,

It is essential that we fly, actually. If you broaden your thinking beyond your daily communte, spare a thought for business people who must fly because we live on an island, and because unlike the rest of Europe we can't hop on an efficient train.

Mark, Birmingham,

BA really are one of the most woeful airlines out there - an absolute embarassment as a national carrier. No doubt the obscene surcharge is actually a method of creating a source of compensation for the fare paying passengers who still have most of their wardrobes in Milan!!!

Liam Richardson, Hong Kong,

The justification for another runway at Heathrow and airport expansion elsewhere is rapidly evaporating. If the Govt taxed air fuel like it taxes petrol the airline industry in the UK would collapse overnight. he difference is we can choose whether to fly because it isn't essential - a car is.

Donna Walker, Effingham, England

Taxi's in Chicago have now been approved to charge a $1 fuel surcharge on every fare for the next 3 months. In the hope (vain) that fuel prices will go down again... Typically taxi tariffs per Km or Mile have not increased for years so they are really hard hit by the fuel prices.

steve, Wiesbaden , Germany

Intersting then that in B.A's preliminary results annoucement two weeks ago (16th May) they stated that the company was in a 'strong financial position' with pre tax profits for the year of £611 million. I wonder what that figure will be next year?

Kate Hutson, York, UK

It is interesting that while fuel prices have increased rapidly over the last year and surcharges have been imposed, BA have made significantly higher profits. The surcharges have obviously more than compensated for the increases in fuel prices.

John, Manchester,

It's time aviation fuel was taxed the same as petrol/derv,those wanting to travel abroad, well,pay for it.Maybe the vast amounts of cheap fuel used by the airlines will be reduced, thus reducing the cost of this valuable and scarce commodity to industry and households.

Kenneth O'Boyle, Perth, UK

A Third Runway at Heathrow is beginning to seem increasingly unnecessary.

MartinG, Nr Reading, UK

Fuel cost is a large component part of air fares, however these are calculated.

Oil will continue to rise in price and fewer people will fly. Businesspeople will teleconference more and the public will travel by train - or not go.

I will holiday once a year only and take it from there.

C Smith, Norwich, UK

With Sterling so low, fewer Britons will be going abroad on holiday this year anyway. These surcharges do mean that there will be fewer people visiting the UK just when the weak pound would make it an attractive destination for Eurozoners and Aussies with their strong currencies.

Paul, Coventry,

Eehm ... shouldn't at least the "fuel surcharge" be included in the fare if we want to have any realism to the term "fare"? Tax as a separate item, OK, but fuel? No one would accept to be told by a taxi driver that the fare will be £10, only to find out that he's levying a separate "fuel surcharge".

Bert, London,

and they tell us there is no recession looming!! Just changed my holiday plans no long haul for this family!!

neil, almere, holland

I agree that airline should make it very clear on their websites/brochures, what the true cost is.Are fuel surcharges taken into account when calculating the CPI?

stephen hulton, eure, france

this means no traveling for this international traveler.

Lauren, Nashville, USA

It's time airlines were forced to show ACTUAL total price pricing in advertising (i.e.-inclusive of ALL additional charges).
The Australian government imposed this some time back---what you see is what you pay and not the clever booby traps the airlines THINK we can't see.

Derek Adams, Pattaya Beach, Thailand

Greedy incompetent airlines should to ponder on the fact that people do have a limit on how much they will allow themelves to taken for mugs. British Airways are the worst culprits with their inflated fuel surcharges that demonstrate utter contempt for their customers.

I will NEVER fly BA again

Mike, Balsall Common, UK

So now we have to pay for paying?! Airlines should make it clear on their websites/in their brochures that the prices they advertise to draw you in do not yet includes taxes until you decide to make a booking. If prices continue to rise then what does this mean for international travel?

Jackie, London, England

There goes my trip to London this year!

Shari Minter, Orlando, US