With oil pricing falling sharply how soon until the airline retract their surcharges?

Airline fees will they go away with the falling prices in fuel and the current conditions the economy is in today? Below is a list of the current fees that have been put in place over the last year and half as the cost of oil rose to over $140 per barrel. So with oil prices now $61.00 per barrel which is less than half of the price when fess were put into place to offset fuel cost how soon will it take the airlines to retract the surcharges?

Unfortunately I would say the odds of seeing fees reduced or retracted anytime soon more than likely will not happen for a number of reasons. The first reason being no fault of their own is on the airlines many of whom bpught their fuel on the futures market locking into a price long term which are now stuck with some of the higher end prices as there was a fear that the prices would have been even higher then what the prices where when they locked into a price during the gorge when oil was at $140 per barrel. Eventually though fuel cost may fall back in line with today’s current market of $60 to $70 per barrel this may cause a few fees to decrease slightly; however  the futures market may rise again post election with drilling restrictions soon to be reset by the new administration and if people return to old habits of driving when gas was under $2.00. the fees and price per barrel may return to $140.00 yet causing the airline fees to go up further. The main reason we will not see fees retracted or decrease is our own fault us the consumers the airlines know now that we are willing to pay the fees that they put into place as we did not object to pay the fees and started paying the fees when fuel cost were up so what’s going to stop the airlines from charging us now that the prices of fuel have dropped.

Here is a list of Airline fees as of November 5, 2008

The airlines highlighted in yellow refelect fees in place for the new merged Delta / Northwest in compare to Sun Country another carrier that is based out of the MSP / HHH hub in the twin cities in Minnesota where Northwest airlines was based out of piror to the merger.

Delta prior to the merger did not have a fee for the first checked back implemented last week a fee for first checked back that is set to being on flights starting December 5, 2008 for air travel tickets purchased after November 5, 2008. Delta also lowwered their fee for phone reservations from $25.00 down to $20.00. NWA rasied their phone reservation fee from $15.00 up to $20.00 to match Deltas fee. Sun Country continues to be one of the only carries to offer a hot sandwhich for free on all flights.