Jet Airways hikes fares by steep 25%

Jet Airways today followed its smaller rival SpiceJet and hiked fares by a steep 25 percent to mitigate the impact of the sharp fall in the rupee value and a near 15 percent spike in oil prices of late.

Also Read: ATF price hiked by steep 6.9 percent

"The airline has hiked its fares by 25 percent with immediate effect," a Jet Airways source told PTI.

Asked whether the hike is on fuel surcharge or base fare, the source said, "it (increase) is in total fares."

The move comes in the wake of a nearly 25 percent fall in the rupee against the dollar and a recent 6.9 percent hike in aviation turbine fuel, sources said.

International oil prices have been trading between USD 105 and USD 115 a barrel since the past few months and following the Syrian crisis, has seen more upward spurt.

Yesterday, cash-strapped budget carrier SpiceJet, which has been put on a cash-n-carry mode by airport operators recently, increased prices by a similar amount, citing the same reasons. Other airlines are also likely to follow suit in the near future.

Jet fuel (ATF) prices were hiked by a steep 6.9 percent, taking the rate to Rs. 75,031 per kilolitre (KL) from September 1. This hike had come on the back of two rounds of ATF price hikes effected in July and August by oil marketing companies.

ATF prices were increased by 5.8 percent on July 1 and by another 6.3 per cent on August 1.