The fee, £3.95 for a one-way journey, will apply on all of the airline’s routes which it does not fly under public service obligations. It will be included in the headline display price and shown separately once flights have been selected for booking.
Chief executive Jonathan Hinkles said: “This isn’t something that we wished to do, nor is it a step that we have taken lightly.”
Hinkles said that “although it will be unwelcome” he believed the decision represented “a transparent response to worldwide circumstances”.
He claimed Loganair had fixed the price for more than 50% of its expected fuel volume for the 12 months from 1 April 2022 with financial hedging.
“For the remainder of our fuel volume, the rise in global oil prices equates to an additional cost of £4.7 million in the coming year at today’s oil price. It is simply impossible for us to absorb this impact, especially where airlines including Loganair still face significant uncertainty over the pace of recovery in passenger numbers from the pandemic,” said Hinkles.
He added Loganair had offered free travel across its network for people displaced by the conflict and the airline had taken “every possible step” to make sure none of its suppliers or commercial links “benefit Russia or Russian interests in any way”.
“The tragedy of war in Ukraine is all too apparent, and the human consequences of that are clearly – and dreadfully – visible. We stand ready to help in any way we can, and we’ve developed contingency plans to deploy our freighter aircraft to fly medical or humanitarian aid directly from Scotland to locations in eastern Poland if the need arises.”
Loganair will half the charge when Brent crude oil falls below $110 per barrel for six consecutive weeks and remove it fully if oil falls below $85 per barrel for six consecutive weeks.
The eligibility of surcharge will be determined by the date of booking and not the date of travel, the carrier said, meaning no charge will apply to existing bookings.
