Minister Vows To Reverse Price Of Aviation Fuel

The new Minister of Aviation, Mrs Stella Oduah-Ogiemwonyi says the ministry will do everything within its power to reverse the high price  of aviation fuel.

During her maiden visit to Lagos the minister insisted that for a litre of aviation fuel to be sold at N185 and N186 per litre in the local market is unnecessary.

According to him, this has affected airfares, which has skyrocketed from N12,000 to N25,000 for an hour’s fight within seven months, decrying that if the situation is not quickly reversed by the ministry, air passengers would continue to pay more.

She stressed that a situation where the minimum wage is N18,000 and ordinary Nigerians are asked to pay N25,000 for an hour flight is regrettable and unacceptable, and explained that the essence of her visit to the state was to deliberate with stakeholders on high aviation fuel and how to effectively tackle the situation.

The aviation minister said: “The average domestic airfare for economic class in January 2011 for an hour flight hovered around N12,000 in July 2011, which is over 100 per cent increase with the likelihood of further increments and attendant effects on flight delays, cancellations, downtown in passenger traffic and overall effects on the survival of the Nigerian aviation industry.

Ogiemwonyi added that no responsible government would fold its arms to the plight of the survival of the aviation industry, maintaining that this underscored for the meeting to frankly and collectively confront the issues as key stakeholders.

Aviation fuel, she noted, is procurement driven, adding that it becomes obvious that there must be a paradigm shift just as the shift becomes more urgent in the light of the perimeter global economic meltdown.

Shedie Okpara