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Elijah Felice Rosales - The Philippine Star
June 13, 2026 | 12:00am
In an advisory, the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) told airlines to bring down the fuel surcharge to Level 12 for June 16 to 30, from Level 13 now.
AFP / Raul Leob
MANILA, Philippines — Filipinos will be greeted with cheaper airfares by the closing half of June, as jet fuel prices begin to wind down to levels lower than record highs.
In an advisory, the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) told airlines to bring down the fuel surcharge to Level 12 for June 16 to 30, from Level 13 now.
This will be the lowest level of fuel surcharge airlines could pass on to passengers since reaching an all-time high of Level 19 in the second half of April.
At Level 12, airlines may slap a fuel surcharge of P389 to P1,137 for local flights and P1,284.4 to P9,550.13 for international services, depending on the distance. Level 13 sets a fuel surcharge of P423 to P1,237 for domestic flights and P1,396.74 to P10,385.42 for overseas services.
CAB ordered airlines planning to collect the fuel surcharge to submit an application to the office before June 16. The regulator also set the exchange rate at P61.62 to $1 for carriers transacting in foreign currencies.
Still, airlines are expecting their profits to decline, if not succumb to a net loss, this year, as they endure cost pressures arising from currency depreciation and jet fuel.
In particular, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) expects Asian carriers like Cebu Pacific and Philippine Airlines (PAL) to see their margins tighten in 2026.
Based on latest computations, IATA said the net profit of Asian airlines would shrink by a third to $6.6 billion this year, from $9.6 billion in 2025.
Further, margins will become thinner at 2.1 percent, as airlines spend more to buy jet fuel. This will lead to a profit drop of 36 percent to $3.4 per passenger, from $5.3, dragging Asia’s aviation industry to its worst year since 2022.
IATA also attributed the gloomy outlook to the weakening value of Asian currencies against the dollar. The peso, for one, has been crashing to historic lows recently, turning in its worst closing rate of P61.75 to $1 on May 19.
In the Philippines, carriers are already suffering the pain of higher jet fuel costs, as their finances took a punch to the gut in the first quarter.
PAL’s net income slid by one percent to P4.28 billion, while Cebu Pacific had it worse, as it sank to a net loss of P400 million.
