State-run oil marketing companies have raised prices of aircraft turbine fuel (ATF) or jet fuel by about 6.7 per cent, in line with rising international prices of the fuel.

This is the third time since mid-March that the oil PSUs are jacking up ATF prices. The cumulative increase since 16 March works out to 17.8 per cent.

IndianOil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum had on 1 April raised aviation turbine fuel prices by 10 per cent after a marginal Rs158 per kl increase two weeks prior to that.

ATF in Delhi will cost Rs31,926 per kl from tomorrow as against Rs29,925.97 per kl earlier. In Mumbai, it will cost Rs32,855 per kl against Rs30,784.81 per kl earlier.

Jet fuel prices varies from airport to airport depending on local taxes and levies and on average worked out to be Rs2,066 per kl.

On 16 March, oil marketing companies raised jet fuel prices by Rs168.85 per kl and by Rs2,651.02 per kl on April 1.

The hike in ATF prices comes amidst reports of a 12 per cent fall in domestic air traffic in the first three months of this year over the same period last year.

The number of passengers carried by domestic airlines between January and March stood at 99.82 lakh against 113.04 lakh in the same period a year ago, recording a "negative growth" of 11.69 per cent, the official air traffic figures released today showed.

Kingfisher Airlines, along with its low-cost carrier Kingfisher Red, was ahead of its competitors at 27.2 per cent share of the market, though it was lower by 2 per cent form the same period in 2008. Jet Airways had 17.9 per cent and its no-frill arm JetLite 7.4 per cent of the market share.

Air India (domestic) improved its market share to 17 per cent from its 2008 figure of 14.7. Likewise, among the no-frill carriers, IndiGo led the way with 13.5 per cent share, increasing its score from 10.3 per cent last year, the figures showed.