PAL wants to reimpose fuel surcharge

Passengers of flag carrier Philippine Airlines should brace for higher fares, as the airline has asked the government for permission to enforce a fuel surcharge given the increase in global oil prices.

According to PAL president and COO Jaime Bautista, the airline has already filed a petition before the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) to impose a fuel surcharge.

"Actually, we have filed a petition for a fuel surcharge but it's being acted (on) by CAB. There will be some hearings pa. I hope they can act on it as soon as possible," he said Tuesday in an interview with reporters.

Bautista noted that oil prices have increased to $66 per barrel, with total costs for transporting fuel into a plane at $80 per barrel. This compares with the $26 per barrel in 2016.

"I wish we can collect fuel surcharge because the price of fuel is already going up... Hindi naman masyadong mataas siya. Just to allow us to recover a portion of the additional cost of fuel," he said.

Bautista declined to elaborate on the amount of the fuel surcharge they plan to impose, but said that it was filed before the CAB in December 2017 and is still under deliberations.

"Alam ko nagkaroon na ng hearing. In fact, there was a CAB Board (meeting) two weeks ago but they deferred the decision," he said.

Bautista said the company is optimistic it will be allowed to impose a fuel surcharge like what is being done in other countries such as Hong Kong.

"Other countries, they still allow fuel surcharge. Hong Kong, for example, our tickets sold out of Hong Kong may fuel surcharge. Tickets sold out of us there, there's fuel surcharge," he said.

"Other carriers operating in those countries may fuel surcharge but in Manila, we cannot, so we just hope that the CAB considers our petition favorably," he added.

Fuel surcharges — ranging from hundreds of pesos depending on the destination of the flight — were disallowed by the CAB in 2015. —KG, GMA News