One airline is adding a fuel surcharge in reverse | Official Website of Louis Velazquez, entrepreneur, finance guy and tech innovator

With the cost of oil and subsequently jet fuel spiking dramatically in the weeks after the U.S.-Israeli strike on Iran, multiple airlines have ended up adding surcharges in various places to make up for their losses.

Last week, Alaska Airlines became the latest to join competitors like JetBlue and United Airlines in raising the prices of checked baggage. Since the start of March, the latter’s chief executive Scott Kirby has repeatedly given interviews in which he warns that the impact on passengers through higher prices in many areas “will probably start quick.”

In each case, the airline said that raising the prices of anxillary services help them recoup losses without raising prices on airfare. The change was also instituted in advance for future flights so that travelers could adapt to new prices.

Volotea puts in “limited and temporary adjustment to the ticket price prior to the scheduled departure of the flight”

But Volotea, a Spanish low-cost airline based out of Barcelona, has now found itself mired in controversy for taking the unusual step of asking travelers who already bought their tickets to pay an additional surcharge to cover the change in fuel costs.

Over the last few days, some travelers scheduled to fly with the airline reported receiving an email asking them to pay anywhere from €7 to €15 over the “change in the cost of jet fuel given the current situation in the Middle East.”

The message came with a link through which travelers need to make the payment before being able to check in and receive their boarding pass. Legally, Volotea falls back on an obscure section in its contract of carriage that allows the airline to do this in the event of “extraordinary” changes in fuel prices.

“In the event of extraordinary fluctuations in fuel prices affecting international energy markets, Volotea may apply a limited and temporary adjustment to the ticket price prior to the scheduled departure of the flight,” the policy reads.

Volotea is a low-cost airline based out of Barcelona.

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As whether the 100% increase observed at one point constitutes as “extraordinary” is open to interpretation given European airlines’ hedging of jet fuel and the drop in prices that followed, the email sent out prompted immediate outcry from affected passengers.

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The surcharge also led many to speculate on whether other airlines in Europe and other parts of the world will use Volotea’s example to try to push forth a similar charge. While multiple airlines Asia and Europe have put in place a fuel surcharge on new bookings, Volotea is the first to try it after-the-fact with booked tickets.

Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary has previously also warned of widespread uncertainty that low-cost airlines in particular now face with regards to jet fuel.

“Nobody is willing to give us any assurances into June or July,” O’Leary said in an interview with The Guardian. “But if there’s a risk to 10% or 20% of the fuel supply in June, July, or August, then we and all other airlines would have to start looking at cancelling some flights or taking some capacity out.