Indication
that airlines plying Nigeria’s domestic routes may shut down operations emerged
on Friday, as the country appear to have exhausted it’s stock of aviation fuel
(popularly called Jet 1).
It
was learnt that in the last three days, some of the country’s leading airlines
have had to scale down their daily flight schedules (postponing or delaying
flights) due to scarcity of aviation fuel to power aircraft in their fleet.
The
trend had led to numerous passengers being left stranded at some of the
nation’s airports. According to the spokesman for Arik Air, Mr. Banji Ola oil
marketers have already informed airlines that the country had ran out of stock.
“The
scarcity became evident few days ago when oil marketers started rationing JET
A1 supply to airlines stating limited stock at the depots,” said Ola.
“Arik
Air has to alert air travellers of the severe aviation fuel (JET A1) scarcity. The
situation is critical in Lagos and Abuja, the operational hubs of Arik Air and
the airline has warned that if the situation is not addressed as a priority by
the marketers, more flights could be delayed or cancelled,” Ola added.
Arik
Air, the largest consumer of aviation fuel in Nigeria operates more than 120
daily flights and its daily fuel requirement is about 500,000 liters. This
means that Arik Air will be most affected by the scarcity and delay in
marketers to source and deliver fuel to the airlines. The other airlines are
Aero Contractors, Dana Air, Air Peace, Azman Air, First Nation, and Med-View
Airline. At the root of the fuel supply crisis is the inability of marketers to
source for the requisite foreign exchange (forex) to import the Jet A1 fuel
into the country with the exchange rate of US dollar to the naira rising over
the weekend to N360 to a $1.
Ola
said: Where flights are likely to be delayed, the airline will notify
passengers through SMS. In case of flight being cancelled due to limited supply
of fuel by marketers, passengers will be accommodated on first available
alternative flight at no cost as the law demands.
SOURCE: DAILY SUN