Before we drift off completely into a monetary policy discussion, here's a little calculation excercise regarding fuel surcharges...


Jet fuel price / barrel at refinery, 02Feb07: 73.1 USD *
Liters per Barrel: 158.91
Exchange rate to CHF / USD 1.25
A320 fuel consumption per 100 Pax km: 5.6 liters **
Distance ZRH-LHR (GCI) 800 km

Could be that my calculatoin skills are not too great, but I would say the fuel costs for one pax between ZRH and LHR are therefore:

Step 1: CHF/liter Kerosene:
73.1USD per Barrel /158.91 Liters per barrel * 1.25 CHF/USD = 0.575 CHF / Liter of Kersone.

Step 2: Consumption:
800km * 5.6 liters per 100 Pax km = 44.8 l per pax

Step 3: Total Fuel Cost per pax, ZRH-LHR
44.8 Liters * 0.575 CHF / liter = ca CHF 26.-

All right, let's be fair and add some costs to get the fuel from the refinery to ZRH, let's say 20% additional fuel costs, and then also add 10% to the distance to cover for a some holding above the queen's little house in the country...
That would make 49.3 Liters * 0.69 CHF/ liter = CHF 34.-

The Swiss fuel surcharge in Europe is currently CHF 32.- per leg.

If this is only a "surcharge", fuel prices must have been quite unbelievably low before!

Sources:
* http://www.iata.org/whatwedo/economi...itor/index.htm
** http://konzern.lufthansa.com/en/down...ility_2006.pdf