Majority of domestic flights have surcharge

— -- Nearly 60% of domestic fares have a fuel surcharge, according to FareCompare.com's analysis of about 418,000 fares.

U.S. airlines' fuel surcharges range from $10 to $260 round trip. The most common surcharge is $170, which is part of more than 127,500 fares.

Airlines recently reduced some of the highest surcharges on expensive domestic tickets but not surcharges on most discount coach tickets used by vacationers and leisure travelers, says Rick Seaney, CEO of Fare.Compare.com.

Southwest Airlines has no fuel surcharges. On routes where it or another discount airline flies, competitors often have no, or minimal, fuel surcharges, Seaney says.

FareCompare.com also analyzed 10 airlines' airfares for about 1,200 domestic routes and found that six carriers' average fuel surcharge had dropped as much as 10% from Sept. 22 to Oct. 22.

American Airlines' average fuel surcharge dropped the most — 25%. AirTran reduced its average fuel surcharge by 16%, and US Airways by 11%.

"Averages can be misleading," Seaney says. "The fuel surcharge for low- and medium-priced tickets stayed the same."

On American's higher-price tickets between Dallas and New York, for example, six fares last month had a round-trip fuel surcharge of $200, and 12 fares had a $170 surcharge, according to FareCompare.com. The highest surcharge on the routes this month was $170 for 16 higher-price fares.

On other routes, "fuel surcharges aren't coming down in proportion to jet fuel prices, because airlines don't have to do it yet," Seaney says. "Planes are full enough. There hasn't been enough of a decline in passenger demand to force the surcharge to come down."