Airline operators in Nigeria have issued a warning that it cannot continue operation beyond three days, counting from Monday due to the lingering scarcity of aviation fuel, also known as Jet A-1.
This hint was dropped by the operators during a resumed meeting of stakeholders with a special committee of the House of Representatives investigating the recent development, headed by Deputy Speaker Idris Wase.
It was revealed during the meeting that at the moment, airlines were buying Jet A-1 at N670 per litre, as against the normal price of N190 where it was recently.
Addressing the Wase-led panel on Monday, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Airpeace, Mr. Allen Onyema explained that that they (operators) cannot afford the fuel anymore, adding that that if they are to continue flying, an average Nigerian would be expected to pay about N120, 000 for an economy ticket.
Wase had last week warned against attempts at blackmailing the Nigerian government, when it was not clear to the committee on what was responsible for the scarcity, and the astronomical hike in price of the product, a development that led to abrupt cancellation of several local flights.
The aviation fuel markers blamed the hike on high dollar exchange rate, but failed to convince the committee on why the prices of the product were rising on a daily basis, as the panel was worried that a question by Wase on how much they purchase the dollar and which banks they obtain such forex from could not be answered.
In his submission however, Group Managing Director of NNPC Limited, Mr. Mele Kyari, disclosed that at the moment, there were 19 oil companies with 88 million litres of aviation fuel in the country.
The Wase committee had its meeting last Thursday, directed the Nigeria Midstream and Downstream Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), to urgently crash the price of Jet A-1, but no appreciable result yet.