Air cargoes to international lines to incur bunker surcharge

Flight freight to China, Japan, the Americas, and Europe will rise by 7~8%.
Ticket prices for flights departing from South Korea will increase this month while airlines will be allowed to adopt a flexible rate system for their freight services, the Ministry of Construction and Transportation announced.
The Ministry of Construction and Transportation announced on April 1 that they will apply surcharges to passenger and cargo fares for all departing international flights starting on the April 16.
The ministry also adopted a fuel surcharge system that permits airline freight service providers to modify prices in accordance with oil price fluctuations.
If the average price of oil exceeds $0.70 per gallon (or $29.4 per barrel) in one month, airlines may charge an extra $0.05 per kilogram of cargo for one month to make up for losses stemming from increased operation costs. The additional surcharges may reach up to a maximum of $0.20 per kilogram if the average price of oil hits $1.00 per gallon.
Airfreight service providers will charge customers an extra $0.10 per kilogram starting April 16, because the average price of oil stood at $0.80 in March.
Airfare will increase by an average of 2.9 percent starting April 16 while round-trip fares to Japan and China will increase by 30,000 won and 28,000 won respectively. For flights to the United States, only fares for first-class and business-class seats will increase by 300,000 won and 200,000 won respectively. The price for economy class will remain the same.
First-class fares to Japan will go up by 6.6 percent, and business fares by 6.8 percent. Fares for economy class to Japan will rise 5.3 percent. Fares in all classes to mainland China will rise by 4.9 percent. Coach fares to west coast cities in the United States will not change, but first and business classes will both rise by 5.5 percent.
Increased fares will only affect tickets bought after April 16, while those purchased before then can be used with no additional charges regardless of when they fly out of Korea.
The price hikes came due to increased oil prices caused by the ongoing war in Iraq, the depreciation of the Korean won against the U.S. dollar and the outbreak of SARS in South East Asia, according to Park Jong-hum, the director in charge of the International Aviation Division of the ministry.
National export traders who use Inchon Airport will also suffer additional expenses due to toll fees going up by 4.6 percent.