Passengers stranded across airports as litre of aviation fuel increases to N607

Confusion reigned across the country’s aviation sector throughout Tuesday with many passengers getting stranded owing to the non-availability of aviation fuel otherwise known as Jet A1.

Besides its scarcity, the sector had earlier in the day been inundated with the news of the unbearable increase in the price of the commodity with one litre skyrocketing to N579 in Lagos, N599 in Abuja, N599 in PortHarcourt and N607 in Kano.

Many of the airline operators who could not get the commodity to buy despite the hike in price were forced to delay their flights with passengers g thing stranded across the airports.

According to information gathered, some of the fuel marketers who have the commodity are hoarding it and willing to sell on cash and carry basis.

Some of the domestic airlines are accusing the oil marketers of preferring to sell to foreign carriers who in turn pay them in dollars.

The situation according to some of the airlines spoken to has led to many flight delays while some airlines had to cancel their flights.

The hiccups caused by the scarcity of the commodity led to flight disruptions as airlines in the cause of adjusting or rescheduling their flights created flight spillover.

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The situation led to chaotic situation at the Lagos airport and other airports.

The operators had at different fora lamented the uncontrolled increase in the price of aviation fuel which they attributed to the recent fare increase.

As of January 2021, a litre of aviation fuel sold for N190 the price which rose to N360, almost double the price.

At the end of February this year, the price has skyrocketed to between N415 and NN440. As of Tuesday, the price is oscillating between N579 and N600.

The airlines’ officials who spoke under anonymity have raised the alarm that if nothing was done urgently that the situation was capable of killing domestic airline business in Nigeria.

Information gathered from one of the operators showed that the price of the product may further increase before the end of the month due to its scarcity, while airlines have continued to delay and cancel flights due to the scarcity of Jet A1 in the last two months.

However, one of the petroleum marketers who spoke but pleaded anonymity, confirmed that the price of the product had increased in the local market in recent months, but debunked that it was scarce.

According to the fuel marketer, most of the domestic airlines could not purchase the fuel because of debts, stressing that “the airlines know what to do.”

While explaining that the fuel marketers only chose to withhold supply to the debtor airlines, the source attributed the situation to the rise in foreign exchange and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.

His words: “The truth is airlines owe the marketers. They are collecting money upfront from passengers, but they are not paying the marketers. I don’t want to mention names.”

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Passengers stranded across airports as litre of aviation fuel increases to N607