Porter and WestJet add surcharge
Wednesday, May 14th, 2008A fuel surcharge by airlines on North American flights may rile customers, but observers say it was inevitable and may even help carrier earnings in the short run.
WestJet Airlines Ltd. and Porter Airlines slapped a fuel surcharge on all their flights yesterday as the price of oil continues near all-time highs. The move follows a similar levy by Air Canada last week. WestJet customers will now have to pay an additional $20 on short-haul flights, $30 for medium-haul and $45 for long-haul flights. Porter Airlines pegged its increase at $20 one way for the Ottawa-Toronto route, and $40 one way on all other routes.
“We’ve hung on as long as we could, as long as our low-cost structure allowed us, but we’ve now reached that point where we introduced that surcharge, at a level that we think is good for us,” WestJet spokesman Richard Bartram said yesterday.
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