Every dollar of every fuel surcharge collected by the airlines since early November has been theft.

But the silence from the ACCC and the carriers is insulting in terms of its charter and the airline’s apparent determination to keep ripping off their customers until the last possible moment.

There is no shred of credibility to these surcharges with the benchmark oil price at close to $US50 for a sustained period for over a month and in the low $US40s range for this week, even at current AUD exchange values.

The Travel Daily ezine for travel retailers plotted the oil price in $US against the surcharges in $A this week. The starting point was the Qantas surcharges of $6 per domestic sector and $15 to London in May 2004 when the benchmark price of light sweet crude was $US41.82.

As of this morning the Qantas domestic surcharge is $21, and the total long haul surcharge is $190, down from a record $210 last January while oil was down $US 1.64 to $US 42.10. The ACCC could not respond to Crikey this morning because of a commission meeting.

Qantas did hint at a possible roll back when a spokesperson said “We are conducting a thorough review of our fuel charges.”

Virgin Blue couldn’t comment. The relevant people in its management team were on a flight.

Is it going to be a race between the Virgins and the Unvirgins of QF to come out with an announcement dripping with self congratulation for being first to abolish the easy skimmings that fuel surcharges have provided since the global financial crisis kicked the floor out of demand and prices?

The disparities between the surcharges in 2004 and now suggest that the ACCC might reasonably try to reconcile the claimed gaps between the value of hedging contracts and the real fuel purchasing experiences of the carriers, since giving the carriers, especially those that conspired to rob their freight customers, the benefit of any doubt ought to be out of the question.

It is clear that fuel hurt the airlines badly. But when did pain give way to deception and theft, and in what amount, and what will the ACCC do about it?