Aviation Fuel Scarcity Grounds Domestic Flights
By Wole Shadare
AT the domestic wing of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos yesterday, many passengers were stranded. Those who trooped there for trips to various parts of the country met their flights cancelled.
The airlines could not run their full flights because they had no aviation fuel to fly.
The operators had on Thursday warned that flights might be grounded if the current scarcity of JET A1 persisted.
The airlines on the domestic routes only rendered skeletal services yesterday because they could not procure the product.
It was chaos at the domestic terminal of the Lagos Airport yesterday as only a few airlines operated, while many others cut or combined flights.
The situation became very rowdy as passengers crowded the counters of some of the airlines to inquire about the next available flights to their destinations.
Save for the intermittent announcements of flights from the public address system, which rekindled hopes in some that they might after all make their trips to their various destinations, most of the passengers had stories of woes to tell. The airlines were equally counting their losses in revenue as a result of the scarcity of JET A1.
The Guardian learnt that the loss runs into several millions of naira.
The Operations Manager of Chanchangi Airline, Alhaji Mohammed Tukur complained bitterly about the situation. He warned that if the scarcity persisted, business activities might be paralysed next week.
"We have been having problems since morning following the decision to keep our aircraft on ground," he lamented.
At 1p.m., the airline had only operated one flight as against almost 10 it would have operated by the same hour. Tukur however, praised one oil marketing firm for selling almost the last batch of JET A1 to some operators.
According to him, some of the oil marketers had to buy the commodity for N80 and resell to the airlines for N85, a situation he described as highly disappointing."
Tukur particularly chided the Federal Government for not curtailing the antics of the operators who, he said, appeared to be forming a cartel.
He warned that the "untoward" behaviour of the oil marketers was bound to adversely affect the economy.
In all, Tukur said his airline would operate seven flights instead of 22, adding, that "we are not on strike, and to have this scarcity is what we do not understand."
The Chanchangi that major marketers claimed that they had not taken delivery of aviation fuel for several weeks now, a situation which caused the scarcity. He stated that many passengers might be left unattended to as the airlines could not say when aviation fuel would be available.
The Chairman of Airline Operators of Nigeria, Steve Mahonwu, confirmed the scarcity.
"Whether there would be flights on Friday (yesterday) or not, tomorrow will take care of itself, but all I can tell you is that there is no fuel to buy", he said.
An employee of Space World Airlines also confirmed the scarcity, stating "it was hectic getting aviation fuel today (Thursday)," adding to that, a lot of their flights were delayed.
Just recently, the price of aviation fuel was increased from N45.00 to N62.00 which led to the recent increase in domestic airfares.
The Guardian's investigation showed that only Oando Plc sold to domestic operators on Thursday, as other oil marketers had run out of stock.
The increase in the price of the commodity further prompted the operators to consider buying fuel from neighbouring West African countries where it is cheaper.
The airline operators had threatened to import the commodity from countries like Ghana, where it is far cheaper than the over N80 and N60 price tag in Nigeria.
