I'm glad I can give some insight on this topic. Lufthansa has a standard hedging procedure. The fuel price of a specific flight actually consists of 24 different prices:

24-6 months in advance: 5% of required fuel for a flight is hedged per month (via the "oil market")

6 months up to the flight: remaining fuel is hedged (via the "jet fuel market")

This also explains why the fuel surcharge won't be eliminated for the time being.


"Lufthansa uses standard market instruments such as forward contracts and options for its fuel price hedges. We hedge 5 per cent of planned consumption per month in Brent collars, up to a hedging level of 90 per cent and with a lead time of 24 months. The hedging transactions are, therefore, based on fixed rules and map the average of crude oil prices over time. The six months following a given date are therefore hedged to 90 per cent."

http://www.lufthansa-financials.de/s..._l2/index.html