Alaska Seaplanes announced this week that it would be implementing a 6% temporary fuel surcharge on fares beginning Friday. The company cites a nearly 40% increase in fuel costs due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
Andy Kline, a spokesperson for the company, said — as far as he knows — Alaska Seaplanes has never implemented a short-term charge of this kind before. But he called the current surge in jet fuel prices unprecedented.
“We just are not able to absorb that. We didn’t want to roll that cost into our fares, because we want it to be temporary,” he said. “We want it to reflect directly the cost that we’re taking on with the fuel. We want to be transparent with our fares as much as possible with our passengers and our customers.”
Alaska Seaplanes is a regional airline in Southeast, operating out of its hub in Juneau. It services cities across the region, along with smaller communities like Angoon, Hoonah, Pelican, Elfin Cove, Klawock, Kake and Tenakee Springs.
Globally, jet fuel prices have surged following the U.S. and Israel’s attack on Iran, with increases exceeding 50% in many cases. U.S. gasoline prices have also spiked over the last few weeks. On Wednesday, the Trump Administration rolled back a law that mandates all goods traveling between U.S. ports to be moved on American-made and American-crewed ships, in an attempt to lower gasoline prices.
Kline said the fare surcharge is intended to be temporary, and Alaska Seaplanes aims to reduce or eliminate it when conditions allow.
“We hope it’s a temporary measure — we want it to be a temporary measure,” he said. “We want people to understand directly the reason why there’s this increase in our fare, because there’s an increase in cost, and we’re trying to keep it separate from our fare and that’s why we’re having it be a surcharge.”
Other larger airlines in the U.S. and across the globe have also begun raising prices in recent weeks due to rises in jet fuel costs.
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