As fuel prices continue to rise, the fuel surcharge on airfares is also increasing. What's your view on the issue?

At the same time both ANA and JAL are announcing record profits! Sure seems like they're taking advantage of the situation to rip off the people.

My take is that if fuel prices rise, the fuel tax would rise. No sh##!

At the every least, the advertised airfares should be what consumers pay. The fuel tax should already be factored in. That should be a legal requirement. Also, airlines should make it clear how the fuel tax is decided. Does it depend on length of flight, type of aircraft or something else?

There is no transparency on the issue from airlines. How can Virgin Atlantic, for example, add a different fuel surcharge to the airfare depending on the class of travel? How can that be legal?

I think we NEED to pay more money to travel agencies and airline companies. They're going through hard times now, so we need to support them with our money.

;)

As long as there will be people who NEED to fly somewhere else for business purposes or to join their loved ones, planes will keep getting full no matter how expensive air tickets get.

Years ago I tried to figure out whether there could be a way to be a paying passenger on one of the thousands of cargo ships that sail across the Pacific, in order to get to the US West Coast comfortably without having to pay a fortune, even if it would take three weeks instead of 14 hours, but there were so many problems that I simply gave up. I hope that somebody will smell the opportunity and offer that option again soon...

ok patrick, so when oil companies are not making money, or breaking even, does that extra tax get refunded ? and who decides this new tax ? politicians ? the ones who will say anything for a vote ?

Will the surcharges come down when the price of fuel comes down ?

The travel agents tell us the surcharge may go up between booking the ticket and setting off, basically shifting the risk onto the customer. This is getting into a grey area since you are charged if you cancel your flight, but you have no idea what your journey will cost you if you book ahead. Basically airlines are adopting banker's logic, the risk is on the customer's side, the profit on theirs.

Blaming the rise in fuel prices on India and China, or trouble in Nigeria, is not actually accurate. The situation in these countries has not suddenly changed, but prices have surged this year. The increase in prices is due to an influx of speculators in oil futures.

I've also considered the alternative, the Trans Siberian Express is starting to look like an option for Europeans.

patrick...and you look back about 10-15 years and you will see that profits are cyclical. You cannot overtax the oil industry, or any industry, just because it is having a good run. So the money should be returned to who ? What standards do you use ? And who should be in charge of returning it ? Again, the same worthless politicians who will sell their grandmothers for a vote ? A surefire way to royally screw the pooch will be to let the pols handle it.

There needs to be consumer protection for airline surcharge structures. It should be included in the advertised price of tickets and not an add on. This is just their way of hiding it until it is too late. A bait and switch plan to say "Hey Hong Kong is only 19,000yen this weekend." Then they add in the other 19,000 yen. This should be illegal.

We get that fuel costs more. But your profits on are on the rise. I smell a rip off. Again normal working class people suffer so fat corporates get even fatter.

ANA and JAL are only announcing record profits because they are finally being run properly (i.e. they never used to make real money before). Fact is airlines globally are sufferring - some will go to the wall due to high fuel prices.

If you surtax oil companies in the good times what incentive do they have to invest more? Socialism don't work.......

No problem with the increases... as long as you are aware of what you are paying for at the time of purchase.

I had an experience recently with No. 1 Travel. Booked a flight home and was quoted a certain price, invoice was sent, etc. The day I was to pay for the ticket I received a phone call from them saying that there had been a fuel surcharge increase and I would have to pay 2000Y more. Not a lot I know but after a few questions I realized that these increases could continue even AFTER I paid for the ticket in full. By phone I was told that the ticket would be issued at the airport on the day of departure and that I would be responsible for any further increases in price. I basically felt like they would hold my ticket ransom and demand whatever they wanted even after I had made my final payment. They even went so far as trying to convince me that this was common practice with travel agents in Japan. Anyway, the first Japanese travel agent I called told me that they had never heard of such an absurd policy and that it was 'basically' illegal for No. 1 Travel to increase the prices after a final payment had been made. Make sure to read the fine print before paying!!

patrick: never mind that the Federal Trade Commission has never found evidence of price-gouging when Congress has asked the FTC to investigate oil prices. Or that oil companies aren't more profitable than other manufacturing industries, except at times when the price of the product they sell is soaring. Or that taxing businesses' excess profits -- How much is excess? -- will lead to a decline in oil exploration and development. Or that taxing business usually means taxing consumers. Plus higher corporate tax will penalize the companies shareholders. It is, arguably, the darker side of capitalism, but its capitalism nonetheless.

I agree on transparency points. Airlines should be charging us exact amount calculated as litters of fuel used divided by number of passengers on the plane. Done.

At the same time the best government can do now is to remove all restrictions, regulations, taxes and duties from all energy related industries.

so when oil companies are not making money, or breaking even, does that extra tax get refunded ?

Capone, this is a specious argument, since oil companies already get multi-million dollar tax breaks in good times and bad. So, there're already getting an undeserved refund.

If you surtax oil companies in the good times what incentive do they have to invest more? Socialism don't work.......

Wakari, it seems to be working for the oil companies, who get corporate welfare regardless of the economic circumstances or their own profitability. Taken your argument to its logical conclusion, there should be no tax on oil companies at all.

Can anyone explain to me how it is that oil companies are making record profits if they aren't as they claim, price gouging? Profit, as I understand it, relies on selling more of something at a set price. But with gas costs skyrocketing, I would assume consumers are not using more gas, but rather less gasoline, or at worst, the same amount of gas as before. So where do these record profits come from if the amount of product being purchased isn't actually increasing (in the US and Japan, at least)?

If anything, the oil companies should be operating at lower profits or a loss, as the cost of raw materials to produce their product increases. If they are passing those rising costs on to the consumer, then I can understand the rise in prices, obviously. But I can't understand the rise in profits.

At best, the profits in a price-wary economy shouldn't be rising at all. I mean, if airline aren't able to keep abreast and are facing bankrupcies due to the rising cost of resources to bring their product to market, leading to, of course, falling profits, then how is it that oil companies are getting richer?

Seriously, I'm no economics expert and would love for someone to explain how this works. Anyone?

Oh, yeah. Rising fuel-surcharges on airfares? It sucks, but it's just going to get worse since we're running out of oil rapidly. Time to find alternative fuel sources fast.

It's called Peak Oil. Here's a primer on Peak Oil from http://www.energybulletin.net/primer.php . I would also recommend the documentary called "End of Suburbia" which is probably on bittorrent by now, to help you put this into context. I wonder if they ever translated that one into Japanese?

With more than 90% of the energy in Japan imported, this is a serious issue being weirdly ignored by media. The above sources will help any reader here get a grip on the issues. Since supply has been in plateau since 2005 or so, as demand exceeds supply, so prices increase.

Some may be thinking it's just speculation; that with a depreciating US Dollar, the oil is worth more in the ground everyday than selling. Although this is true, the fact of the matter is that under Peak Oil, there is no more slack in the system. The world can no longer increase and exceed current production levels. We've been at 85 mil/barrels per day for over 3 years now. Our allowance is not increasing. What happens when it starts decreasing? The world is not prepared.

Also checkout http://www.theoildrum.com for more detailed analysis and timely cogent discussions. (June 8th topic "Why oil costs over $130 per barrel: the decline of North Sea Oil" here: http://europe.theoildrum.com/node/4112 )

Don't take my word for it. Take the IEA excel spreadsheet information and make nice graphs. The data updates every 3-5 months.

For 150 years, we went up. You can follow the progress of the world with the production of oil. All our technology and society, even our delusion of entitlement due to previous investment is all due to this amazing period in humanity. However, now we are in plateau, and these delusions of continuing in the same business-as-usual manner of continuous endless growth are in question. Some day soon we'll be heading down the curve, and reality will finally hit us as we go back to living like the 1940's or earlier in terms of energy usage.

It will be more local. More interesting, more neighbourly. Not bad, just different than today.

As it happens, I believe that of all nations, Japan has the possibility to ride out the wave of energy recession better than others. More electricity, more solar panels, more gardening, more local living.

Make your time

However, come winter time in Japan with all those kerosene heaters, the pinch will be on.

"Time to find alternative fuel sources fast"

Give me a few more years - my warp-drive engine design looks promising!

Seriously, I'm afraid awl is going to be our mainstay energy source for the next few decades. There simply aren't any serious alternative energy sources that can compete with awl, even at awl's record high prices.

It's all supply and demand - I'm going to demand less myself this year - I'm foregoing a planned trip to the States. If a bunch of people do what I'm doing, the airlines will have to cancel/reduce flights, in turn buying less jet fuel, in turn REDUCING DEMAND FOR AWL!

Seriously, I'm afraid awl is going to be our mainstay energy source for the next few decades. There simply aren't any serious alternative energy sources that can compete with awl, even at awl's record high prices.

This isn't going to work. Unfortunately oil is most certainly not going to be available in the next 5 years let alone the next few decades. Not that there won't be oil mind you, just that the demand for it increasingly overcomes supply. Divide what's left with an increasing population means less to use, no matter what the price. Then do that again as oil drops by another 3% a year, every year. This is called 'demand destruction' or recession, take your pick.

Our economic system is predicated on continuous growth, which is slightly insane. We seems to have failed to understand the ramifications of subtraction as a global society. I was no different. However after I saw "End of Suburbia" and found the above links, and read a lot!, this helped my understanding. For some people this is very depressing, but that passes.

Now that we are expecting continuous albeit slow decline, now is the time to adapt. If we wait until we really are in a crisis, then we have failed ourselves.

We'll be fine, we can adjust after all, but don't expect to be driving in 5 or 7 years. Get out of your condo/apartment, get land if you can, learn to garden and ride/fix a bike, would be simple examples anyone can do. As energy availability continues to drop by 15%, (3% * 5years) then you have to use 15% less energy. It's pretty simple. Better to start now, while you have choices, and not when you have to suddenly make a 15% subtraction.

Lifestyle changes are important ways to reduce your burden as well as a means of personal protection. Asking to look into ways of being self reliant are good exercises. ie: try to find a bike repair course in your city. Do you even have one?

sf2k,

Thanks for that link. I have some reading to do tonight.

the only option will be mailing myself home if the prices keep rising