Cathay Pacific will ease fuel surcharges slightly from 16 May

Cathay Pacific’s fuel surcharges have climbed sharply in recent months, driven by the spike in oil prices arising from the conflict in the Middle East.

Compared to the start of the year, passengers are now paying close to three times the surcharges, on top of the regular airport taxes and fees. That significantly erodes the value of what would otherwise be sweet spots — what good is a 9,000 miles Economy redemption to Taipei if you have to pay S$213 on top of it?

Well, there’s finally some modest relief on the horizon. With jet fuel prices easing slightly, Cathay Pacific has announced a 13% reduction in its fuel surcharges, effective 16 May 2026. While this is still a long way from pre-conflict levels, any respite is welcome at this point!

Cathay Pacific eases fuel surcharges

Cathay Pacific will lower its fuel surcharges by roughly 13% for all commercial and award tickets booked from 16 May 2026 onwards.

Again, I want to emphasise that the booking date is what matters, not the actual travel date. Fuel surcharges are locked in at the time you book your ticket, so you won’t have to pay a top-up should jet fuel prices subsequently increase (and you also won’t get a refund if they subsequently decline, unless of course you cancel and rebook).

Cathay Pacific fuel surcharges are the same across all cabin classes, and are applied by sector. For example:

• a round-trip ticket between Singapore and Hong Kong currently has US$100 of fuel surcharges (2x US$50), which will decrease to US$87 (2x US$43.50) for bookings made from 16 May 2026
• a round-trip ticket between Singapore and San Francisco via Hong Kong currently has US$500 of fuel surcharges (2x [US$50 + US$200]), which will decrease to US$436.20 (2x [US$43.50 + US$174.60]) for bookings made from 16 May 2026

Fuel surcharges are still far from their pre-conflict levels, however, as the table below shows. 

To put that into more concrete terms, here’s a summary of how much you can expect to pay for fuel surcharges for one-way Cathay Pacific flights originating from Singapore (to see the round-trip cost, simply multiply the surcharges by two).

As a reminder, fuel surcharges are in addition to the usual airport taxes and fees, which currently amount to S$65.20 for a flight departing from Changi Airport, and will increase to S$79.20 by 2030. 

At least the sustainable aviation fuel levy has been delayed until at least October 2026— the last thing we need right now is another junk fee!

Asia Miles devaluation

If you’re planning to take advantage of the reduced fuel surcharges to lock in some award tickets, here’s a reminder that Asia Miles underwent a devaluation on 1 May 2026.

Cathay does not publish the Asia Miles award charts on its website, but we can reverse engineer them based on searching. Here’s how redemption costs have changed for Cathay Pacific flights…

…and for partner airlines.

It’s a modest devaluation in absolute terms, with a maximum increase of just 5,000 Asia Miles. 

However, Asia Miles has now carried out three devaluations in quick succession— one this month, another last year in April 2025, and before that in October 2023. Taken collectively, these have resulted in a significant increase in the cost of long-haul Business Class awards, which are now 40% more expensive compared to less than three years ago.

HeyMax x Cathay Pacific transfer bonus

Get 200 Max Miles when you open an account and complete your first transaction

Get a HeyMax Account

Higher award costs and fuel surcharges are no doubt annoying, but HeyMax users can offset some of the pain with an uncapped 20% transfer bonus from 1 May to 1 June 2026.

Users will receive 1.2 Asia Miles for every 1 Max Mile transferred, instead of the usual 1 Asia Mile. A minimum transfer of 1,000 Max Miles is required, with blocks of 100 Max Miles beyond this.

Max Miles	Asia Miles
1 mile	1 point 1.2 points

No registration is required, and base and bonus points should be credited within three business days (HeyMax says that it’s working towards making this instant in the future).

Refer to the post below for more details.

HeyMax offering 20% transfer bonus to Cathay Pacific Asia Miles

Conclusion

Cathay Pacific will ease its fuel surcharges by 13% from 16 May 2026, marking the first cut since the onset of the Middle East conflict.

That said, surcharges remain considerably higher than at the start of the year, which continues to erode the value of Asia Miles redemptions. Personally, I’m holding off on making any new bookings until we see further reductions, though I wouldn’t hold my breath that they’ll happen anytime soon.

(Cover photo: Planes Portrait Aviation Media)