For the current financial year starting April 1, 2006, SriLankan is now paying 1.96 dollars per gallon per gallon.
"The current cost of oil per barrel raises our costs above the 2.00 dollars per gallon mark, which is why we have levied a fuel increase effective 05 May," the airline's Chief Commercial Officer, Barry Brown told LBO.
Fares for European routes go up by 15 dollars, Middle East and Far East 10 dollars and Indian routes by 5 dollars. All of these are one way surcharges.
The fee will not be applicable on tickets bought before April 30, the airline said.
Air France-KLM, Singapore Airlines and a string of other carriers are in the process of increasing the fuel surcharge element in their long-haul ticket prices, again passing on to passengers the rising cost of aviation fuel.
The airlines justify the price hikes by the recent surge in crude prices to 75 dollars a barrel last week, sparked by geopolitical tensions in Iran and Nigeria.
Jet fuel makes up between 30 percent and 35 percent of SriLankan’s operating costs.
"Every 0.01 dollar increase in fuel adds 1 million dollars to our costs per annum," explains Barry.
The carrier has locked in about 40 percent of its annual 2.8 million gallons fuel requirements by hedging against future oil prices for the past two years.
"Hedging is not a complete safeguard against continually rising fuel costs but offsets a certain amount of costs within a specific bandwidth," says Brown.
"It is worth noting that fuel hedging is incorporated within our budget process and as highlighted above the dramatic rise in costs exceed our expectations," he says.
Rising fuel prices have continued to erode group earnings, with SriLankan's profits slumping 75 percent to 1.34 billion rupees over 5.63 billion rupees reported a year earlier.
Operating with 14 Airbus planes, SriLankan flies to 49 destinations in 28 countries.
Emirates, the largest Arab carrier owns 43.6 percent of SriLankan Airlines.
-Mel Gunasekera
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