mumbai with public sector oil firms increasing aviation turbine fuel atf sale prices by 185 per cent major aircarriers have raised fuel surcharge with effect from tuesday making air travel costlier while national aircarrier air india announced its decision to hike fuel surcharge on saturday other carriers announced their hikes on monday jet airways kingfisher and deccan along with air india are amongst the major aircarriers who have already effected a hike in fuel surcharge with the increase a passenger will be charged rs 2250 as fuel surcharge for a distance up to 750 kms and rs 2900 for beyond 750 kms a jet airways spokesperson said on monday kingfisher and deccan too followed suit by hiking their fuel surcharge by rs 300 for shorthaul and rs 550 for long hauls kingfisher and deccan have decided to increase their fuel surcharge from june 3 a kingfisher airlines spokesperson said an increase of rs 300 in fuel surcharge would be applicable on shorthaul flights distance travelled upto 750 kms and rs 550 for longhaul ones beyond 750 kms from midnight today the spokesperson added on monday other aircarriers are likely to follow suit in a day or two according to indications available public sector oil companies had announced an 18 per cent hike in aviation turbine fuel on saturday forcing aircarriers to pass on the additional burden to their passengers however chennaibased air passengers association of india apai has said that a series of recent hikes in fuel surcharge could hit air traffic growth in the country further the perpetual increase in fuel surcharge is not a good signthis year air passengers traffic is likely to be only around 55 per cent to 6 per cent because of regular hikes in airfares and other factors as against the expected 28 per cent air passengers association of indias president apai d sudhakar reddy said reddy said that there was already a decline in traffic in the quarter ended januarymarch this year as it fell sharply to 11 per cent from 24 per cent in the yearago period on one side you have hikes in fares and on the other passengers at the newlybuilt bangalore and hyderabad airport are shelling out additional charges which makes their journey even costlier reddy said this is the reason many passengers are now opting for train journeys than travelling by air reddy said last month when atf prices were raised by about rs 5 per litre most of the aircarriers had hiked fuel surcharge by rs 150350 however air india had spared its passengers from any hike the airlines argue that the increasing fuel bills forces them to hike fuel surcharge every time oil companies revise the atf sale prices as it helps them offset the additional liability to some extent incidentally the surcharge only offsets a portion of the additional liability that is imposed on the fuel cost whenever oil companies hike atf prices an air india spokesperson said currently a kilolitre of atf costs rs