It has often amazed me that the press hasn't caught on to the fuel scam. Do the math.
If an aircraft burns 80 tons of kero on a 10 hour flight and carries 300 passengers then each passenger could pay for 80/300 or 266 kgs of fuel and you could fill 'er up. At a kero price of around 1100 USD a ton that is around 292 USD per passenger.
So if you are charging USD500 fuel charges you are making a whole bundle for the CEO's bonus per flight. And this is without the freight and excess baggage revenue, don't get me started.
No so called fuel surcharge should be more than the cost of the fuel on board. There is a cost of doing business, and if you have an input you need to cover that in your fixed revenue, not in your variables.
Or am I being teeeribly naive here?