Singapore Airlines raises fuel surcharges

Singapore Airlines' passengers will be paying hefty fuel surcharges on flights, as the airline becomes the latest to hike up fares in response to higher oil prices. Qantas was first out of the gate to increase fuel surcharges, while Air New Zealand increased its fares by a similar amount.

Singapore's new surcharges come into effect on Thursday 17 March.

Business class passengers to Singapore can now expect to pay a fuel surcharge of US$220 for a return flight, or a whopping US$480 if they're connecting all the way to Europe and back.

Singapore quotes all fares in US dollars -- and, helpfully for business travellers, the Australian dollar and the greenback are almost exactly at parity (99.7 AU cents to the US dollar at time of writing).

All flights will see fuel surcharges increase.

We have the full table of the new total fuel surcharges below, and we've also calculated return fares for common destinations from Australia.

Flights between Singapore and Australia will now have a return surcharge of US$192 in Economy, US$220 in Business Class and US$248 in First Class or Singapore's first class Suites.

If you're travelling between Singapore and Europe, that's a new return surcharge of US$284 in Economy, US$316 in Business Class and US$336 in First Class or Suites. 

There's a reduced rate for travelling between Europe and Australia/New Zealand via Singapore: US$432 in Economy, US$480 in Business Class and US$512 in First Class, again all return. 

The special rate is only available for passengers connecting in Singapore immediately, and isn't available to travellers stopping over in Singapore en route for meetings or to break their journey. 

John Walton

Aviation journalist and travel columnist John took his first long-haul flight when he was eight weeks old and hasn't looked back since. Well, except when facing rearwards in business class.