Aviation Price Hike: Airline Operators Seek FG’s Intervention

The Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) has called on the senate, the Federal Government and Nigerians to intervene and stop aviation fuel marketers’ plan to increase price of the product.

The oil marketers last weekend had written to airlines operating in the country intimating them of their plan to increase the price of aviation fuel by 10 per cent.

“We are calling on the Senate, the Federal Government and Nigerians to intervene before the airline industry collapses because of this development”.

Chairman of AON, Dr Steve Mahonwu who made the call at a meeting of airline operators recently in  Lagos appealed to the government to do something urgently about the fuel situation.

Mahonwu expressed the fear that the threat by the fuel marketers if carried out, airlines may be walking on a tight financial  rope as cost of aviation fuel constitutes a huge percentage of their cost.

He explained that given the present scenario, it may be difficult for airlines to pay what they owe aviation agencies, which plan to grand them soon, pointing out that aviation fuel sells for between N115 and N118 per litre, depending on the quantity to be purchased, while major independent marketers sell at  different prices depending on the location.

Aviation fuel, according to him, is cheaper to obtain in Lagos as opposed to far locations such as Maiduguri, Kaduna and Sokoto, adding that no airline will be able to afford this increment after the one done last September.  In September, the price was increased by three percent.

“We are gradually going to the 2008 era when oil marketers arbitrarily increased fuel price till it got to N180 per litre. It was the intervention of the senate and the federal government   that reduced the price to N90 then”, Mahonwu explained.

He regretted that since the announcement of N500 billion aviation fund for power and energy and aviation sector, the airlines are yet to be able to access the fund which is under the Central Bank of Nigeria’s supervision.

Currently, airlines charge between N22,000 and N30,000 for an hour flight and the proposed increase by the oil marketers may bring air fares in the neighbourhood of N25,000 to N35,000, which may force many passengers to explore other means of transportation as the current economic hardship will not allow them much disposable income for travelling in leisure  by air.

Shedie Okpara