Some local airlines in Nigeria may soon be out of operations due to unsustainable operating costs as the price of Jet-A1, often known as aviation fuel, has risen to N710 per litre. This was revealed at a recent aviation conference in Abuja by the Vice President of the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) and the Air Peace boss, Allen Onyema.
Onyema in his statement stated that "if the present challenge of aviation fuel was not fully addressed, about three airlines may quit operations due to the unbearable cost of operations."
"The fuel crisis is not limited
to Nigeria, but ours is made worse because of the slump in naira value against
major currencies, especially the dollar."
"That is why we ran to the
government and the Federal Government has given us about 10,000 metric tonnes
of fuel at the cost of N580 per litre in Lagos and about N607 per litre outside
Lagos."
"This is not the only issue.
Since the COVID-19 crisis, most airlines all over the world, including Nigeria,
have not recovered from the pandemic, except those whose countries have
injected large funds to assist them. This (the pandemic) is nobody’s fault; it
just happened. The government has tried its best by giving us this aviation
fuel. This aviation fuel can take airlines out, not only in Nigeria but also
everywhere in the world.
“Some airlines outside Nigeria have
closed down because of the effects of rising aviation fuel. If these things are
not addressed in Nigeria, it can affect the bottom-line of all airlines in
Nigeria.”
The cost of aviation fuel is not the
only item that has increased in price. The cost of fuel per litre is
anticipated to rise from N800 to N1,500 in the next two weeks, according to a
report released on Wednesday. The Natural Oil and Gas Suppliers Association
(NOGASA) announced this at a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday. According to
them, if nothing is done to alleviate the current issue faced by importers of
the unregulated product, the price of diesel will skyrocket.
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