Aviation Fuel: Operators Threaten To Shut Down Airline Operations

Airline operators have threatened to shut down in the next 72 hours except the Federal Government resolves the high cost of aviation fuel.

Vice President of the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), Chief Allen Onyeama, stated this at the resumed meeting between the operators, oil marketers, the regulators and leadership of the House of Representatives.

He said airline operators cannot continue to sustain the current price of the product.

Onyeama, who said the operators were not threatening the country, said: “If they (cost of aviation fuel) don’t come down from their high horse, I am sorry to say that we have only three days of operation left.

“We know the importance of aviation to the economy. Currently, the average price per seat is N70, 000. We have not included the cost of insurance to that.

“All the Insurance companies in this country cannot insure one aircraft. So, we have to go outside the country to get insurance for our aircraft.

“We cannot continue to subsidise the industry. If we must continue to operate at this rate, then the average cost per ticket will be around N150, 000 and that will not be good for the economy.”

Meanwhile, representatives of the oil marketers said high Dollar rate was responsible for the high cost of the fuel.

This is just as the fuel marketers failed to convince the House of Representatives panel on why the prices of the product were hitting the rooftops on daily basis.

Deputy Speaker of the House, Ahmed Idris Wase, who chaired the committee asked the marketers how much they purchased the Dollar and which banks, to which the representatives of the marketers could not give an answer.

He, therefore, warned against blackmailing the government.

Meanwhile, the group managing director of NNPC Limited, Mele Kyari, has said that at the moment there were 19 oil companies with 88 million litres of aviation fuel in the country.