In looking at the "Boeing biofuel breakthrough" a couple of days ago, I happened to look at what actual fuel consumption for the US airline industry has been. Turns out that, although total passenger miles is up since 2000, the fuel consumption for the commercial aviation industry (which may include cargo flights) peaked in 2000. The actual fuel usage for 2012 -52.3% of the 2000 FAA estimated consumption -- they'd predicted 3-4% annual growth over the next 10 years, it turned out to be a 15.9% reduction over the period.
Increased load factors (the seats filled on a flight -- increased from 70-83%) and reduced seat pitch (more seats, and passengers, per plane) seem to have staved off an actual reduction in the passenger-miles, but I strongly suspect that by plane-miles flown, we're down net.
http://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/1wo2hl/boeings_...
It is debatable if each passenger should pay the same share - those up front have bigger heavier seats for example.
You also need to take into account the belly cargo - up to 30 tons on a 77W. That is a very significant revenue and profit centre for airlines. 30 tons is also very close to how much the passengers together weigh!
Suppose you're about to fuel up a long-range 777 for a trans-Pacific flight out of Los Angeles. So you swing over here:
http://www.airnav.com/airport/KLAX
And see that Landmark Aviation will sell you Jet A at $7.95. Your 777-300ER's tanks hold 47,890 gallons. So it "only" costs $380,725.50 to fill up before you leave.
Meanwhile, for BOS-LHR:
http://www.airnav.com/airport/KBOS
Signature Flight Support wants $9.16 right now. Fueling up for a 6-hour flight at 6000gal/hr will only run you $329,760.
So yes, fuel is very much the cost of aviation. After a couple years of flying, you'll have psent more money fueling your shiny long-range 777 than you spent buying it. And it cost you $320 million to buy.
If there are 250 people, round trip fuel price per passenger is $480.
Considering fuel is about 1/3rd of airline's operating expense, charging anything less than $1,000 for BOS-LHR roundtrip ticket is a money losing proposition, unless they can pack 350 people.
6000 gallons / hour of flight
$3 / gallon (currently $2.92)
550 passengers / flight
6 hours flight time
Results in an actual fuel cost of $193.36.
I'm quite surprised to see that fuel really is a significant price of the total cost of a flight. I always thought the Fuel Surcharge thing was B.S.
However, I disagree that it should be allowed to be separated from the cost of the flight. The airline isn't buying the fuel the day you buy your ticket or the day you fly, they're buying the fuel the day they schedule the flight via futures (or if they aren't ,they should be). It also isn't something out of the ordinary in the day to day business. Here in Australia their is 'public holiday surcharges' where you have to pay a surcharge on public holidays because businesses have to pay their employees more.
There should be requirements on what can be permitted to be placed as a 'surcharge'. As I see it, there is nothing stopping an airline from doing a complete 'a la carte' offering where every item of your ticket is broken out as a separate charge, but unfortunately, you don't have the option to opt-out of any of it.