Airlines cannot add fuel surcharges after ticket sales, EU says

Published connected 08/05/2026 - 15:11 GMT+2•Updated 15:20

Airlines cannot complaint passengers further fees for a formation bought successful the EU, adjacent if substance prices surge sharply successful the aftermath of the Middle East crisis, the European Commission said connected Friday.

A Commission guidance enactment for the EU transport assemblage ruled retired immoderate formation summons terms adjustments aft the acquisition - a signifier that the Spanish low-cost institution Volotea has been doing for weeks.

“Anyone selling aerial tickets indispensable ever show the last terms the rider volition pay. This includes each unavoidable and foreseeable taxes, fees, and charges. Adding a substance surcharge to a summons aft it has been bought cannot beryllium justified,” a Commission spokesperson said.

Volotea slapped surcharges of up to €14 connected tickets successful caller weeks amid a surge successful kerosene prices. The institution calls its argumentation a “Fair Travel Promise", which is present portion of its latest presumption and conditions.

Volotea says it present reviews substance marketplace prices 7 days earlier a formation departure, applying a surcharge if prices person risen, oregon refunding the quality if they person dropped. The interest is mandatory to corroborate a passenger's spot connected the flight.

The Spanish user extortion organisation Facua called for an investigation, claiming the practise is unlawful and raising concerns that different airlines would travel Volotea’s example.

Volotea has been contacted for comments.

Refunding and rerouting

The Commission added that passengers affected by cancellations are inactive covered by EU aerial rider rights. That means they are entitled to reimbursement, re-routing, oregon return, positive the assistance astatine the airdrome provided by the aerial company.

The caller substance terms emergence prompted galore European airlines, including Lufthansa, British Airways, and KLM, to cancel flights, saying they became either economically unfeasible oregon unprofitable.

But the Commission said airlines are lone exempt from paying fiscal compensation if they tin beryllium that the cancellation was caused by bonzer circumstances, specified arsenic a section substance shortage.

High substance prices caused by the ongoing situation successful the Middle East, however, are not considered “extraordinary circumstances”.

“There is simply a quality betwixt precocious pitchy substance prices and a shortage of fuel...It is for the airlines to negociate terms volatility”, the Commission spokesperson said.

The Commission acknowledged that substance prices relationship for overmuch of aerial carriers’ costs, but said they are “entirely foreseeable astatine the moment.”

Since the Iran struggle began successful February, the outgo of pitchy substance has much than doubled, chiefly owed to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which has chopped disconnected astir a 5th of the world’s proviso of oil.

For last-minute cancellations – little than 14 days earlier the scheduled departure – aerial carriers are successful rule required to wage compensation, which could beryllium either a full refund of the ticket’s terms oregon a aforesaid magnitude voucher for aboriginal flights.