Expert blames Jet A1 scarcity on malfunctioning refineries

The present scarcity of Jet A1 popularity known as aviation fuel has been blamed on the inability of the government to put the country’s refineries in order.

An aviation expert and a former director of operations at the Nigerian Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO), Mr Hurbert Odika while stating this, also traced the hike in airfares to the airlines’ running cost.

Odika explained, that the industry would never had witnessed the current economic predicament caused by the shortage of aviation fuel in the sector if the refineries were functioning.

According to Odika: “We will refine here at cheaper labour cost, no ocean freight to bring back the finished product, no charges in foreign currency for refining the PMS or AGO to return them back to the country. Nigeria at the moment is cheating itself”

Odika while expressing displeasure at how till today no one had explained why the refineries were not up and running, lamented how marketers of diesel were having a swell time and therefore, called on the government to make the refineries work.

According to him, the oil boom was time-bound as renewable energy has come to stay as the “West was working seriously to ensure that by 2040 renewable energy in Europe will form 80 – 90 per cent of their consumption.”

Calling on the Buhari government for the time left for the oil boom to allow all the refineries to be made to work and search for alternative areas of revenue generation, Odika said: “Over dependent on oil is time-bound; 20 years maximum for major export that we can boost of now. It doesn’t mean that we will not sell any more but a limited amount for Nigeria”.

Odika congratulated the airlines in the country for forming an alliance, saying it has the capacity of keeping domestic airlines alive and provide consumer satisfaction.

He said airlines can now transfer passengers to other airlines and it will help to improve on standards, timing apart from the weather, adding that days of sitting endlessly at the airport waiting for flights to come were over with the alliance

On the fare hike, Odika said it was expected like every other business but remarked that the hike in Jet A1 sounded unrealistic to him from N200 to N625 per litre.

Though Odika said the airlines had justification to increase fares but condemned the blanket increase across the nation saying: “You don’t charge the same fare for a flight to Benin that is 35 mins as somebody going to Yola or Kano that is over one hour. That is not realistic”

Odika called on the operators to sit down and look at each route with the alliance formed to adjust their fares accordingly, adding that some people will be happier like those on the long haul – Yola, Kano – but not on the short flight.

While commending the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) for being able to reduce the presence of touts at the nation’s airport terminals, he, however, berated the authority for constructing the new Chinese financed international terminal at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport without considering space for apron and wings span of wide-bodied aircraft.

”The new terminal cannot take more than two wide-bodied aircraft at a time at the apron. That will make it less attractive to foreign airlines. It will consequently reduce the commercial value of the terminal, especially at peak periods of airline operations. To remedy this, the federal government has to demolish existing structures around the terminal to increase apron space.”