IndiGo lifts the domestic fuel charge to as much as Rs 1,300 from Tuesday

IndiGo raised its fuel surcharge from Tuesday, 6 October, as aviation turbine fuel prices climbed. On domestic flights the charge now runs from Rs 375 for sectors up to 500 kilometres to Rs 1,300 for sectors longer than 2,000 kilometres. The bands in between are Rs 600 for 501 to 1,000 kilometres, Rs 900 for 1,001 to 1,500, and Rs 1,150 for 1,501 to 2,000. Business Standard and the Financial Express both published the table.

The April scale, the last full structure, ran from Rs 275 to Rs 950. The shortest band has risen by Rs 100. The longest has risen by Rs 350, about 37 percent. The 1,001 to 1,500 kilometre band has gone from the old figure to Rs 900, a 50 percent rise on the Business Standard comparison. This is the second revision since IndiGo introduced the surcharge in March. The airline said ATF prices are up more than 14 percent in a month and are among the highest in a decade.

Delhi prices make the cost visible. Business Standard put ATF in Delhi at about Rs 137 a litre, against about Rs 110 in July, a rise of nearly 25 percent, including about 13 percent in October alone. Fuel is about 40 percent of an Indian carrier's operating cost. A surcharge is the part of that cost the airline chooses to show on the ticket rather than fold into the base fare. Passengers see it as a line. The airline can change it without reprinting the whole fare sheet.

International bands moved further. SAARC flights up to 500 kilometres carry Rs 1,000, against Rs 900 in April. SAARC beyond 500 kilometres carries Rs 3,000, against Rs 2,500. Southeast Asia, the Gulf, and North and East Asia are at Rs 5,500. Africa is at Rs 6,000. Europe is at Rs 10,000. The Financial Express listed the Europe figure at the top of the international scale. A family of four on a Europe booking now sees Rs 40,000 in fuel charges before the base fare, if each ticket carries the full surcharge.

The price shock is not an Indian refinery event alone. The West Asia war that began in late February, when Israel and the United States struck Iran, and the naval blockade on Iranian shipments, have tightened crude. Iranian exports have been described by the country's central bank chief as having fallen to zero. Indian ATF is priced off the regional product market. IndiGo does not buy Iranian crude. It pays the product price that the war has lifted.

Festive travel is the calendar the airline is walking into. October bookings are already on the books for Dussehra and Diwali. A surcharge added on 6 October hits tickets still being sold, and it hits existing bookings only if the fare rules allow a later add-on. IndiGo has not said, in the reports used here, whether tickets issued before Tuesday keep the old charge. That is the question a passenger with a booked PNR should ask the airline, not assume from the announcement.

Rival carriers have not published a matching table in the same news cycle. IndiGo is the largest domestic airline by seats, so its line becomes the reference price other airlines are judged against. If they absorb the ATF rise, their margins move. If they copy the table, the festive fare gap between airlines stays roughly where it was. The open number is the October ATF print itself. At Rs 137 a litre in Delhi, the 1,300 rupee long-haul domestic charge is the airline's current answer. A further product-price rise would put that answer back on the desk before the month is out.