Flights will cost £35 less as BA cuts fuel charge

BRITISH AIRWAYS will drop its fuel surcharge by as much as a third on long-haul flights, the airline announced today.

It said the move, which will save customers up to £35 per flight and comes into effect tomorrow, reflects the fall in the price of oil and the amount it predicts fuel will cost over the next financial year.

The reduced surcharge means the price of seats will be cut by £4 for people flying economy on domestic or European services. That will rise to £35 for those flying first class for more than nine hours.

Last month, four past and present British Airways executives appeared in court charged with price-fixing surcharges. They face up to five years in jail if convicted of conspiring with rival Virgin Atlantic to inflate passenger fuel surcharges on transatlantic flights between 2004 and 2006.

The trial next year will be the first prosecution of its kind to target managers at a leading multinational company.

BA has already paid £270 million in fines levied by the Office of Fair Trading and the US Department of Justice in connection with the passenger fuel surcharges case.