Chinese airlines have asked the industry regulator to allow them to increase fuel surcharges as they confront surging oil prices, Shanghai Airlines Chairman Zhou Chi said on Friday.
The airlines are seeking up to a doubling of the surcharge and the regulator is expected to give a response around July 1, Zhou said.
He added that he expected his airline to be profitable in the first half of this year, although full-year results would depend in part on government policies, including the surcharge.
Chinese airlines have been hit hard by a surge in crude oil prices.
China Southern Airlines Chairman Liu Shaoyong said in an interview published in a state-run newspaper on Thursday that the rise in oil prices had boosted the carrier's annual costs by nearly CNY5 billion yuan (USD$728 million).
