Local airlines, hit by scarcity of aviation fuel and increase in charges by regulatory authoriries, jack up fares

By Funsho Balogun

Air passengers on the busy Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Owerri routes arrived the ticketing counters at the new Murtala Muhammed Airport 2 domestic terminal last Monday 18 February 2007, to be confronted with the unexpected - increase in fares. Abuja-bound passengers, for example, suddenly realised they had to add N2000 to the N14,000 that was the norm.

But then, some passengers, in the midst of their grumbles, admitted they saw the rise coming. What they could not specifically lay their finger on was the exact date it would take off and in what percentage. The signs had been ominous over the past three weeks, with sporadic cancellations of domestic flights and rife talks that local airlines have concluded plans to pad upwards their charges.

The ostensible reason for the hike is scarcity of Jet A1, the main fuel airlines use to power their aircraft. Jet A1 is a kerosene grade of fuel suitable for most turbine engine aircraft and produced to a stringent, internationally-agreed standard of the International Air Transport Association, IATA. Operations in the industry in Nigeria have in recent times been greatly constrained by the recurring scarcity of the product; on 6 February, nearly all domestic airlines cancelled one or two flights due to unavailability of Jet A1. From TheNEWS gathering, the hitch came about courtesy of marketers’ failure to lift the product for more than 18 days before things gradually ground to an inconvenient halt. According to some quarters, the problem, though shortlived, was the offshoot of the importation of substandard aviation fuel last month. The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, promptly rejected the product for safety reasons.

For full details, demand the 25th, February 2008 issue of TheNEWS from your vendor now.
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