British Airways and Virgin Atlantic slashed their fuel surcharges on long-haul services by up to a third yesterday.

The reductions, which come into effect on flights booked from today, follow a collapse in the price of oil from $147 a barrel in mid-July to only $45 yesterday. They come a day after Bmi became the first European carrier to abolish fuel surcharges on all routes.

BA and Virgin, which cut their surcharges in October, are likely to be followed by other carriers in coming days. Austrian Airlines reduced its surcharges within hours of BA’s announcement, which was followed soon afterwards by Virgin.

Aer Lingus, the Irish carrier, which is fighting a second hostile takeover bid from Ryanair, removed its long-haul surcharges altogether last week and SriLankan Airlines said last night that it would cut or remove fuel surcharges from January 1.

A number of top cruise-line operators, including Royal Caribbean, Carnival Cruise Lines, Crystal and Norwegian Cruise Line, recently have also dropped fuel surcharges, with Elegant Cruises & Tours, the upmarket operator, following suit yesterday. The moves come after heavy criticism of the airlines from MPs and air-transport watchdogs, who have accused the airlines of dragging their feet in failing to pass on the benefits of lower fuel prices.

The latest reductions mean that for long-haul economy routes, such as from London to Los Angeles, Tokyo or Sydney, the surcharge on a flight falls by £30 a flight to £66. On flights of less than nine hours, such as those from London to New York, there will be a reduction of £15 to £53.

For premium economy flights of more than nine hours there will be a reduction of about £30 a flight to £85 and for those of less than nine hours the charge will be reduced by £20 a sector to £63.

For first-class and business-class passengers, the surcharge for flights longer than nine hours will be reduced by £35 to £98 and on shorter long-haul flights there will be a fall of £20 to £78. The surcharge on BA’s domestic and European services will also be reduced by £4 to £12 a flight. For business-class passengers the reduction will be £5 to £15.

BA said: “The move reflects the reduction in the price of oil and the airline’s fuel hedging policy for 2009-10.”

Neither BA nor Virgin will offer refunds for tickets booked before today for flights on which the higher surcharges were levied.

Fuel surcharges have become increasingly controversial after the huge fall in crude oil prices.

The Air Transport Users Council complained in September about the reluctance to drop surcharges despite falling fuel costs — arguing that BA’s surcharge bore no relevance to the cost of fuel. Competition watchdogs in New Zealand began legal action this week, accusing 15 airlines — including BA, Emirates and Cathay Pacific — of acting as a cartel in the imposition of surcharges. Last month BA reported a 92 per cent fall in first-half profits as it suffered the twin blows of record high fuel prices and a sharp fall in the number of business-class passengers.

In the six months to September 30, BA carried 582,000, or 2.7 per cent, fewer passengers in the first half compared with the same period last year.

Its traffic figures showed that it carried 5.6 per cent fewer passengers in October and its aircraft were only 77 per cent full on average — down by three percentage points.

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