Malaysia Airlines Might Increase Its Fuel Surcharge

National carrier Malaysia Airlines has revealed that it is mulling over whether or not it should increase its fuel surcharge. Along with other airlines, the company implemented a surcharge back in March as oil prices keep rising due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict that saw the former being imposed with sanctions from dozens of countries.

Group Chief Marketing and Customer Experience Officer Lau Yin May said that the current surcharge being implemented costs as little as AS$8 (~RM35.17). When we checked the Malaysia Airlines website earlier today, domestic Malaysian flights currently have a fuel surcharge of RM12 while the surcharge for international flights from KLIA varies from RM30 to RM60.

Just earlier this month, Crude Brent oil prices shot up to US$121 (~RM533) per barrel, but as of writing, it has since gone down to US$109 (~RM480), which is still high compared to the US$73 (~RM321) per barrel price from last year. Lau said that the price surge has severely impacted Malaysia Airlines’ performance.

She then revealed that the airline needs to study if there is a need to increase the fuel surcharge, which might be done in stages. The marketing chief confessed that the company currently has no time frame on when this might be implemented as Malaysia Airlines is studying the need every day to remain competitive.

Lau added the current fuel surcharge that customers pay only covers about 10% of the increased fuel cost, with the remaining 90% being absorbed by the carrier. As for its capacity, the company has seen it return to 50% pre-pandemic levels following the country’s border reopening and hopes to achieve 70% by the end of the year.

Malaysia Airlines isn’t alone in imposing a fuel surcharge as a similar move was implemented by AirAsia, which ranges from RM10 to RM60. When we checked, Firefly also imposes a fuel surcharge costing RM35 while Batik Air charges a whopping RM50 for both domestic and international flights.

(Source: Berita Harian.)