Cathay Pacific’s fuel surcharge will come into play from tomorrow as surging oil prices force carrier to deal with the ongoing volatile situation in the Middle East.
The global average jet fuel price increased to US$197 per barrel for the week ending 27 March 2026, increasing from US$157.41 per barrel for the week ending 6 March 2026, and US$95.95 per barrel for the week ending 20 February 2026,” price data published by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) revealed.
Crude oil increased to US$110.78 per barrel for the week ending 20 March 2026. At the same time, the refinery component (weekly average crack spread) increased to US$86.22 per barrel for the week ending 20 March 2026, increasing from US$72.26 per barrel for the week ending 6 March 2026, and US$24.48 per barrel for the week ending 20 February 2026. Together, these increases illustrate the sharp rise in overall jet fuel price.
Fuel accounted for approximately 30 per cent of Cathay Pacific’s total operating costs in 2025 and is critical to its operations, it said.
“If the steep increase of fuel costs cannot be effectively mitigated, we would not be able to sustain the effective operations of our network.”
It follows Fiji Airways MD and CEO Paul Scurrah confirming at the Fiji Tourism Exchange last week that it too would be adding a fuel surcharge.
“Like every airline in the world, we are very susceptible to the shock and the impact of increased fuel prices, and that is something we’re absolutely feeling at the moment,” Scurrah told Travel Weekly. “We’ve taken moves to recover that through our revenue management processes.”
Crude hedging not enough
Like many airlines, Cathay undertakes fuel hedging to manage fuel price volatility. However, in 2026 its hedging covers only around 30 per cent of the crude oil component and hedging does not apply to the refinery component, making this measure insufficient given the scale of the recent surge in jet fuel price.
“Fuel surcharge is another important mechanism to mitigate and recover a portion of our incremental fuel costs,” it said. “Given the current situation, many airlines globally have implemented fuel surcharges around the world at comparable levels in response to the increase in jet fuel price.”
Cathay will adjust the fuel surcharge effective 1 April 2026 as follows:
- Short-haul flights: HK$389 (from the current HK$290, increase of HK$99).
- Medium-haul flights: HK$725 (from the current HK$541, increase of HK$184).
- Long-haul flights: HK$1,560 (from the current HK$1,164, increase of HK$396).
“To enable a more agile response to the volatile jet fuel prices, we will review and revise the fuel surcharge every two weeks to better capture jet fuel price movements in either upward or downward direction,” it said. “This increased frequency of review is intended as a temporary measure and will be revisited when the Middle East situation stabilises.
“We note that some major airlines have reduced their capacity in response to the escalating fuel prices. Cathay Pacific is determined to manage this significant cost challenge as best we could, in order to maintain our network and frequencies during these unprecedented times in the interest of our customers, business partners and the Hong Kong international aviation hub.”
