“Just FYI because it does not change your analysis on airline companies last Friday:

“The Philippines impose a tax to foreign carriers and this has been a growing issue for the past year or so between carriers and the government. This might actually be at the origin of the request for additional surcharge fee mentioned in the article, rather than the oil price.

“This tax especially affects long haul flights. As a consequence, KLM, which used to travel straight from Manila to Amsterdam, makes now a kind of unnecessary and out of the way stop-over in Taipei, just to avoid this big taxation imposed by the Philippines.

“See also: http://mutualfundphilippines.com/2012/03/economic-updates/philippines-advised-to-scrap-airline-taxes/

http://business.inquirer.net/46993/gov%E2%80%99t-urged-to-scrap-airline-taxes

Eoin Treacy's view Thank you for this informative email, following on from my piece on airlines in Friday's Comment of the Day. An additional concern for European airlines which perhaps reflects their underperformance relative to their US competitors is the EU emissions directive. As currently structured US and Asia airlines are refusing to pay while European airlines will have little choice but to comply. This article from DW may also be of interest.