Fuel costs and airline ticket prices

timvenner

I've bought RyanAir tickets back in January for flights in late June. Can they legally add a surcharge if fuel costs remain high ?

Ayr_Rage

Suggest you check the Ryanair website and their Ts and Cs.

la531983

Ryanair have gone on record of saying they had hedged their fuel price for over a year anyway.

phatbear

nope same way they wouldnt give you money back if fuel suddenly became really cheap.

you have entered a contract with a supplier and paid in full for that service they cant then change the price of the service.

that being said they could cancel the flights, as lufthansa just has.

TELLIT01

This will depend entirely on the T&C when you booked. There certainly used to be a clause allowing a surcharge in certain circumstances.

This is from the ABTA website so hopefully is accurate

https://www.abta.com/help-and-complaints/frequently-asked-questions/ive-paid-my-holiday-arrangements-can-my-travel

flaneurs_lobster

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81973232#Comment_81973232

Doesn't ABTA only apply to packaged holidays? OP is asking about a flights-only booking.

eskbanker

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81973293#Comment_81973293

ABTA is just the trade body for travel agents, so can apply to both, but yes, in that particular extract, they're clearly referring to package holidays, where the Package Travel Regulations do permit fuel surcharges.

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81973206#Comment_81973206

They legally can if the contract you signed up with them says they can. There can be arguments about it being an unfair contract term unless it's very prescriptive.

My experience is that direct bookings with airlines its much less likely to happen but its not THAT uncommon with package holidays where the operator is using a third party airline. There its more defensible as its a straight pass through of a cost. Same when a government or airport suddenly add/increase a per passenger charge. Normally it's only those that have booked a very long time in advance that it hits because people are given a significant heads up before it happens.

Doesnt always, when APD in the UK was doubled in 2007 it was only a 1 week notice most the budget airlines passed the charge on but a few companies absorbed it https://www.thetimes.com/travel/advice/isnt-ryanair-collecting-apd-twice-sxqgtd8rrxq