News Analysis India

Tag: Fuel cost

  • Surge in jet fuel prices set to make flights costly

    Express News Service

    NEW DELHI:  Airfares are likely to soar further as the government has hiked jet fuel prices by 5.29%, its 10th hike in the year so far. Fares have already shot up by 25-40% this year. The latest jump would only make flying costlier. Jet fuel rates account for about 40% of an airline’s running cost. Fares in many sectors have nearly doubled in the last two years or so.

    A quick search on any travel portal shows that a one-way flight in the busy Delhi-Mumbai sector is priced between Rs 6,550-7,850 (May 23, non-stop, economy) while in the Delhi-Bengaluru sector it is Rs 8,400-9,850. In the early 2020s, before Covid struck, a one-way Delhi-Mumbai economy class flight booked a week in advance was priced roughly at Rs 3,500. For the Delhi-Bengaluru sector at that point in time, it was about Rs 5,000.

    Multiple ticketing agents this newspaper spoke to said airfares in 2022 alone have shot up by up to 40% for tickets booked for flights that would take-off in 15 days, while it went up by up to 25-30% if booked after 15 days.

    Rajiv Mehra, president of, Indian Association of Tour Operators, told this newspaper, “5-10% hike is absorbable but when the fares go up by 30-40%, it dents the tourism sector. After the pandemic, we were now hoping for good tourists’ arrival but these high fares have poured water on all our hopes.”

    The price of jet fuel, also called aviation turbine fuel, was increased by Rs 6,188.25 per kilolitre, or 5.29%, to Rs 1,23,039.71 per kl (Rs 123 per litre) in Delhi. The fuel cost has been raised by a cumulative 61.7% from January to May 16 this year.

  • Higher transportation cost pushes petrol rate in Maharashtra’s Parbhani district to Rs 122.67 per litre

    By PTI

    AURANGABAD:  With fuel prices being hiked multiple times over the last two weeks, the rate of petrol in Parbhani district in Maharashtra reached Rs 122.67 a litre on Tuesday, one of the highest prices in the country, mainly due to the higher transportation cost.

    The steep rise is also attributed to the long distance of over 400 km between Parbhani city located in the Marathwada region and the fuel depot at Manmad in the Nashik district in north Maharashtra, a petrol dealer said.

    “The cost of fuel in Parbhani (district) is high due to the long distance between the Panewadi fuel depot at Manmad in Nashik district and Parbhani city,” Parbhani Petrol Dealers Association president Amol Bhedsurkar said on Tuesday.

    He said the round trip distance for a tanker transporting fuel to Parbhani from the Panewadi-based depot in Manmad is nearly 730 km.

    “The fuel transportation cost for Parbhani is nearly Rs 2.07 per litre. The overall cost runs into Rs 24,000 for operating a fuel tanker on the Manmad-Parbhani-Manmad trip,” he said.

    Bhedsurkar further said the fuel depot at Panewadi is the nearest to Parbhani compared to other such depots in Maharashtra.

    “Due to the long distance between the depots and Parbhani, the fuel cost goes up. The price of petrol per litre in Parbhani without the dealer’s profit is Rs 119.02 as of Tuesday. At Rs 122.67 per litre, the rate of petrol in Parbhani is one of the highest in the country,” he added.

    When contacted, an official at the HPCL regional office in Aurangabad city said that the prices of fuel at a specific location depend on the distance between that location and the nearest depot. “Due to the long distance between Parbhani and Panewadi the cost of fuel is also high,” he added.

    Earlier on Tuesday, petrol and diesel prices were hiked by 80 paise a litre each, taking the total increase in rates in the last two weeks to Rs 9.20 per litre.