BA and Virgin cut fuel surcharges
British Airways and Virgin Atlantic are dropping their fuel surcharges from midnight tonight.
Virgin announced its plans to reduce prices yesterday afternoon and BA followed suit this morning with exactly the same reductions.
Neither airline has lowered the surcharge for its premium customers.
From midnight, BA World Traveller passengers will pay £13 less on longer sectors and £10 less on shorter sectors.
World Traveller Plus passengers will pay £6.50 less on longer sectors and £5 on shorter sectors.
The changes will mean the surcharge for long haul flights of more than nine hours will drop by £13 per flight from £109 per flight to £96 per flight.
The surcharge for long haul flights of less than nine hours will drop by £10 per flight from £78 per flight to £68 per flight.
Meanwhile, Economy passengers with Virgin Atlantic will pay £10 less on shorter sectors and £13 less on longer sectors, while Premium Economy passengers will pay £5 less on shorter sectors and £6.50 less on longer sectors.
But for Upper Class passengers there is no reduction.
A spokesman for Virgin said: “Upper Class passengers pay more as their space and baggage allowances onboard are much greater.
“Also, Virgin Atlantic is still paying just under half of the rise in the cost of fuel since we introduced the charges initially (in 2004) and we are not passing these costs back to our passengers.”
For shorter sectors, the new fuel charges will be £68 for Economy and £83 for Premium Economy, but will remain at £98 for Upper Class.
On longer sectors – Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Beijing Tokyo, Shanghai, Sydney, Mauritius, Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Hong Kong – charges will be £96, £114.50 and £133 respectively.
By Bev Fearis
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
Vegas’s Billion-Dollar Secrets – What They Don’t Want Tourists to Know
Visit Florida’s New CEO Bryan Griffin Shares His Vision for State Tourism with Graham
Chicago’s Tourism Renaissance: Graham Interviews Kristin Reynolds of Choose Chicago
Graham Talks with Cassandra McCauley of MMGY NextFactor About the Latest Industry Research
Destination International’s Andreas Weissenborn: Research, Advocacy, and Destination Impact
Graham and Don Welsh Discuss the Success of Destinations International’s Annual Conference
Graham and CEO Andre Kiwitz on Ventura Travel’s UK Move and Recruitment for the Role
Brett Laiken and Graham Discuss Florida’s Tourism Momentum and Global Appeal
Graham and Elliot Ferguson on Positioning DC as a Cultural and Inclusive Global Destination
Graham Talks to Fraser Last About His England-to-Ireland Trek for Mental Health Awareness
Kathy Nelson Tells Graham About the Honour of Hosting the World Cup and Kansas City’s Future
Graham McKenzie on Sir Richie Richardson’s Dual Passion for Golf and His Homeland, Antigua
ADS PRO 
France prepares for a massive strike across all transports on September 18
Turkish tourism stalls due to soaring prices for accommodation and food
CCS Insight: eSIMs ready to take the travel world by storm
Germany new European Entry/Exit System limited to a single airport on October 12, 2025
Airlines suspend Madagascar services following unrest and army revolt