LIST: How much are the passenger fuel surcharges in CAB’s matrix?

The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) announced an upward adjustment on fuel surcharges for domestic and international flights under an interim shortened evaluation and implementation period covering April 1 to 15, 2026.

For this period, the fuel surcharge has been adjusted upward by four notches to Level 8 from the current Level 4.

This would mean that the current fuel surcharges of P117 to P342 for domestic flights, depending on flight distance, will increase to P253 to P787.

For an international flight, the surcharge will increase from the range of P385.70 to P2,867.82 to the range from P835.05 to P6,208.98.

What is fuel surcharge?

The CAB defines airline fuel surcharge as an “optional fee” imposed and collected by airlines to recover costs resulting from the movement of jet fuel prices.

It is not part of the basic airfare and maybe adjusted upward or downward depending on the price of jet fuel in the market.

The CAB reviews jet fuel prices monthly to determine the fuel surcharge level for a following month. Airlines wishing to collect fuel surcharge for an upcoming adjustment period shall file an application with the agency.

For the coming month, however, the CAB shortened the fuel surcharge adjustment and monitoring period to 15 days, from one month, as an interim and temporary measure amid high volatility in fuel prices to allow faster response to market changes to cushion is impact and manage increasing costs.

Fuel surcharge matrix

In May 2022, the CAB adopted a matrix with 20 levels, providing a guide on how to adjust fuel surcharge depending on the price per liter of jet fuel.

Below is the breakdown of corresponding fuel surcharge for each level for a one-way domestic flight:

For a one-way international flight, the corresponding fuel surcharges for each level are as follows:

— BM, GMA Integrated News