Fuel surcharge to transport dogs!

[FlyingVisit]

Why is there a fuel surcharge for taking a dog abroad on a flight? Anyone?

[PAXboy]

Money for the airline.

Next!!! :}

[FlyingVisit]

Someone told me that the extra charge was for having to heat the hold, which they wouldn't normally do if they didn't have livestock on board. I know air/con burns fuel, but didn't realise heating the hold cost fuel too?

[PRD Area]

Someone told me that the extra charge was for having to heat the hold, which they wouldn't normally do if they didn't have livestock on board. I know air/con burns fuel, but didn't realise heating the hold cost fuel too?

How would you feel if you arrived somewhere after a 15 hour long haul flight and discovered that all of your underwear was frozen solid because the hold wasn't heated? :}

[Bealzebub]

Good question! Why is there a fuel surcharge at all?

In the days when airline tickets were often priced anything up to a year ahead, volatility in the price of fuel made it very difficult to accurately predict the dispatch cost of a flight. Fuel surcharges were a method that in some measure helped to smooth out this distortion. However it is extremely rare to recall there ever being a fuel rebate applied? These days when yield mangement enables an airline to price a ticket almost minute by minute how can it a apply a defined surcharge to a cost it largely already knows. Particularly so when much of that fuel has already been purchased on the futures market.

The answer is simple. The regulator who would come down like a ton of bricks on most retailers engaged in this form of "fluid retailing," seems reluctant to seek legislation to prevent it. Thus companies can continue to sell a £99 product for a headline price of 99 pence, and attempt to claw (no pun intended) the real cost back through the fuel surcharges, taxes & charges, booking fees, etc.etc.

Fido of course is oblivious to all this because he doesn't have to pay the bill.

[raffele]

Someone told me that the extra charge was for having to heat the hold, which they wouldn't normally do if they didn't have livestock on board. I know air/con burns fuel, but didn't realise heating the hold cost fuel too?

A quick search brings the following information:

* Hold temperature varies according to ambient conditions at time of flight
* Typically one hold is pressurised and with temperature control
* With no livestock or perishables, typical temperature appears to be around 10 degrees C
* For perishables, the hold is kept below 10 degrees C
* For livestock, temperature is kept between 18-24 degrees C

[Bealzebub]

All the holds are pressurized. The pressurisation is caused by extracting bleed air from the engines and regulating the rate at which it flows out of the aircraft. Pressurising air heats it up. That is why the air extracted from the engines has to be cooled (for the most part) by airconditioning packs before it is fed into the cabin. However some of this engine bleed air is used to trim the temperature in various compartments (of the cabin and in some cases the holds) of the aircraft. In some aircraft electric supplementary heating is employed to provide any additional heating that may be required. In either case the fuel useage is negligable.

[The Real Slim Shady]

At Ryanair we carry dogs for no fuel surcharge: some people call them mingers though, or chavettes ;)

Or did you mean small yappy type dogs?

[Final 3 Greens]

At Ryanair we carry dogs for no fuel surcharge: some people call them mingers though, or chavettes

Not nice to talk about your CC that way :=

[The Real Slim Shady]

Who mentioned cabin crew (http://www.flightglobal.com/airspace/media/chipmunker/ryanair-charity-calendar-2010-front-cover-37954.aspx) ?:):)

[ohitsmonday]

I assume the animal is being carried as cargo - if this is the case most airlines levy a fuel surcharge per kg carried on top of the 'headline' rate.
If as baggage or in the cabin, I haven't got a clue...