Virgin Atlantic has announced fuel surcharge increases, but its economy class passengers will pay lower charges than those sitting nearer the front of the aircraft in premium economy and upper class seats.
From tomorrow (Friday May 30), the surcharge on economy seat bookings sold in the UK will rise £2.50 to £65.60 for shorter sector flights and by £4.50 to £83.50 on longer sector flights - those from London to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Tokyo, Shanghai, Sydney, Mauritius, Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Hong Kong.
The premium economy increase will be £12.50 on shorter sectors (taking it up to £75.50) and £16.50 (to £95.50) on longer sectors and the upper class shorter sector surcharge rises £22.50 (to £85.50) and it increases £28.50 to £107.50 on longer sectors.
Virgin Atlantic's chief executive, Steve Ridgway, said: 'With jet fuel prices now at levels that challenge the very nature and structure of the entire airline industry, we have decided to levy fuel charges depending on where you sit in the plane. Our upper class and premium economy passengers benefit from considerably more space on our aircraft and larger baggage allowances than our economy passengers, so our aircraft burn more fuel to carry them.'
'We believe that economy passengers should pay lower fuel charges than passengers in our two premium cabins as their carbon footprint is around half of those seated towards the front of the plane.' |
