Lower airfares to greet Pinoys in 2024

Filipinos may start the new year ticking a destination off of their bucket list, as airfares are set to drop in January with the government's move to slash the fuel surcharge. In an advisory, the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) said the fuel surcharge that airlines could collect from passengers will be cut to Level 6 in January from Level 7 in December. As listed in CAB's matrix, Level 6 means carriers can impose a fuel surcharge of only P185 to P665 for domestic flights and P610.37 to P4,538.40 for international routes. As required, CAB instructed airlines to submit an application for fuel surcharge to the agency before January. For January, CAB said operators may apply a conversion rate of P55.6 to $1 for airfares to be collected in foreign currency. Airlines may include the fuel surcharge in the billing of their passengers to somewhat recover the losses they incur from price fluctuations in jet fuel. For 2024, the IATA projects jet fuel to average $113.8 per barrel, and expects the aviation industry to consume 99b gallons. 'High crude oil prices are expected to continue to be further exaggerated for airlines as the crack spread, or the premium paid to refine crude oil into jet fuel, is expected to average 30% in 2024,' IATA said.<br/>