As the issue of contaminated aviation fuel becomes more controversial, the Chief Operating Officer of United Nigeria Airlines, Mazi Osita Okonkwo, has called on fellow operators to be more alert to the imminent danger waiting to happen should the menace continues.
Speaking at a conference organized by the League of Airports and Aviation Correspondents in Lagos, Okonkwo declared that henceforth, all pre-flight operations or activities must be done by the airlines and the fuelers to avoid a repeat of the contamination discovered in Max Air.
The airline chief who supported the swift action taken by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority on fuel contamination believed the action will go a long way in preventing a similar occurrence.
While acknowledging the fact that the issue of contaminated fuel may be from the browser or the point of loading or off-loading, Okonkwo remarked: “They can’t assume that once the browser comes up in the morning that everything is fine, you must do these things. And before the fuel enters your plane, you have to do the normal basic checks. These are standard operating procedures.
“I think it’s a one-off thing, it’s not a universal or sector thing. So, we shouldn’t overblow it. It’s an incident that happened, it could have come from the operator or from the marketer, the oil marketer. It’s something that is a one-off and we’ve never experienced it in the two years of operations. So, I can’t really say how or why it happened.
“The NCAA, the operators, the fuelers and the NNPC are all working on that and I don’t think we’ll ever see it again. What it simply means is that we should all be vigilant and all the pre-flight operations or activities must be done by operators, also by fuelers”.
Speaking on the increase in the cost of Jwt A1, the United Nigeria airline chief argued that once there is inflation, costs rise at all levels, operationally, even as he lamented that in Nigeria there are spikes in costs rather than the normal gradual inflationary related costs.
“We wait until after a long time and then we have an adjustment which becomes very difficult to manage. But we are reacting to it. Obviously, there are some we will absorb directly. There are some we will pass to passengers by adjusting the fares. But, it’s not going to be immediate because we know that the gradual increase is not what people can easily absorb,” he added.
On access to forex by airlines, Okonkwo who said the access is becoming better with the Investors and Exporter, I&E window, however, said there must be availability of the naira.
“In terms of access, I think it’s becoming better and better. The cost is very volatile. But in terms of access, yes, if you want and you can pay, I think you will have access to that. But you have to have the Naira. And Naira is a scarce commodity now.
“These are still early days and the policies and the practices and processes are evolving. But what it has done is that it has promised a level playing field for everybody. That’s one. There is transparency so you can build in your costs transparently and everybody will see that.”
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