Fuel surcharge hikes push up fares across air, land travel

Starting April, getting anywhere in the Philippines just got more expensive — whether you’re flying home or just getting to work.

The Civil Aeronautics Board approved higher fuel surcharges for airlines beginning April 1, adding to what passengers already pay for domestic and international flights. At the same time, buses, jeepneys, airport cabs, and transport network vehicle services reportedly secured their own fare increases, creating a rare moment when nearly every mode of getting from point A to point B costs more all at once.

What the Numbers Actually Mean

For flights, the fuel surcharge — that line item most passengers glance past when booking — will climb higher for the first half of April. The exact peso amounts vary by route distance and airline, but the pattern holds: longer flights absorb bigger increases. A Manila-to-Cebu ticket that already stretched the budget now stretches further. International routes, especially to the Middle East where hundreds of thousands of OFWs travel, will feel the adjustment most.

On the ground, the increases touch different wallets. Jeepney and bus fares inch up by amounts that sound small until you multiply them by twice a day, five days a week, across millions of commuters. TNVS rides — the Grab or taxi app many turned to when they could afford convenience — also reportedly got approval to raise base fares and per-kilometer rates.

Why Everything Moved at Once

This is not coincidence. It’s how the system responds when global oil prices shift and local transport operators, from airlines to jeepney cooperatives, file petitions citing rising costs. The CAB and the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board review these requests on overlapping timelines. When crude prices stay elevated long enough, approvals tend to cluster.

What makes this round particularly sharp is the timing. April marks the start of Holy Week travel season, when domestic flights fill with families heading to provinces and international routes carry balikbayan boxes and OFWs on leave. Summer vacation bookings layer on top of that. Operators know this. Regulators know this. And now passengers absorb it during peak demand.

The fuel surcharge mechanism itself is designed to let airlines adjust prices without seeking full fare increases — a faster, more flexible tool that passes costs directly to passengers when oil markets tighten. Kaya nga, when you see pump prices climb for weeks, airfare adjustments usually follow within a month or two. As of the Department of Energy’s NCR price monitor for March 10 to 16, 2026, common pump prices were at ₱70.95 per liter for gasoline (RON95) and ₱81.48 per liter for diesel.

What This Means for Your Holy Week Plans

If you have not booked your April flight yet, you are paying the new surcharge. If you booked earlier, you locked in the old rate — a small mercy, but only for those who planned ahead and had the cash flow to pay in advance.

For daily commuters, the jeepney and bus hikes translate to tighter weekly budgets. A worker spending ₱100 daily on roundtrip transport now spends ₱110 or ₱120, depending on the route. Over a month, that is an extra ₱400 to ₱600 — roughly the cost of according to reports a week’s worth of rice for a family of four.

TNVS riders face a choice: accept higher fares for convenience, or shift back to traditional taxis and jeepneys, which are also more expensive now but still cheaper than app-based rides. For families planning provincial trips by bus, the decision becomes whether to travel at all, or to send fewer members home this year.

There is no hack around this. You can book earlier next time, but that requires disposable income most Filipinos do not have sitting idle. You can shift modes — fly less, commute differently — but the fare hikes span nearly every option. What remains is adjustment: smaller trips, fewer visits, stretched budgets.

Editor’s Take

The approvals came through separately — airlines under CAB, land transport under LTFRB — but the effect is the same: Filipinos pay more to move. Regulators frame these as necessary responses to rising fuel costs, and that is not untrue. But necessity does not make it easier for the worker who now chooses between commuting five days or four, or the OFW who delays going home another six months because the ticket price just jumped. We have built a transport system where every external shock — oil, exchange rates, global supply chains — lands directly on the passenger. And we are surprised every time it does. Maybe the shock is that we keep acting surprised.

Sources
Airfares to spike in April as CAB raises fuel surcharge — Inquirer
Higher airfares? How much fuel surcharges may cost from April 1 to 15 — Rappler
Buses, jeepneys, airport cabs, TNVS get fare hike — Inquirer
CAB Advisory Fuel Surcharge 1-31 March 2026 — Civil Aeronautics Board
NCR Prevailing Retail Prices of Petroleum Products for the week of March 10-16, 2026 — Department of Energy
Fare Rates — LTFRB