Stakeholders in the aviation industry are worried over the continued rise in the price of aviation fuel and its scarcity in the country.
The situation has degenerated to the extent that, most domestic airlines now operate a flight or two a day as against 10 and above flights previously in a day.
The price of a liter of aviation fuel according to investigation has now hit N700 and it is reported to go higher to N900 and N1,000 per liter in the coming days.
The scarcity crisis has also led to delays and cancelation of flights, many passengers are sometimes left stranded at the airport terminals.
All the domestic airlines on a daily basis, apologies to their customers assuring them that, when the situation gets better, their full flights would be operated.
Airlines like Ibom, Arik, United, Max, Air Peace and others have posted on their websites and their various media platforms of the challenges they are faced with due to the unavailability of aviation fuel to embark on flight.
Recently, the House of Representatives Committee on Aviation in the National Assembly through its Chairman, Nnolim Nnaji called for a meeting of all stakeholders to find solution to the current development.
Also on the matter, the National Association of Aircrafts Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE) has also thrown its weight on the call on the Federal Government to wade into the matter.
President of NAAPE, Abednego Galadinma says, the body has observed that the hike in price of aviation fuel in the country and the scarcity of the products is capable of crippling domestic operators and by extension, the Nigerian aviation industry.
“We are very worried about this issue as it has made traveling very difficult for passengers and caused much disruption in the operations of domestic airlines”.
He added, “The industry is still recovering from the negative impact of the pandemic and many airlines haven’t completely recovered. If this issue of scarcity is not immediately addressed by the Federal Government, not only would the airlines be negatively impacted, the ripple effect will be felt in the aviation downstream sector which may lead to job losses”.
He however expressed joy that, the matter is being taken up by the House of Representatives to convene a meeting of industry stakeholders with a view to solving the issue.
“But we don’t want it to stop at that”.
“The executive arm of government, should as a matter of urgency, address the issues causing the scarcity and price hike so that normalcy can return to the industry”.
