PBA ReporterAir Peace Chairman, Allen Onyema has warned that every airline, operating in Nigeria shall shut down in the next three days if the current aviation fuel scarcity should continue.
The Air Peace Boss said: ‘We have only three more days, all airlines in Nigeria will shut down. We are not threatening this country, it is a fact.”
Onyema revealed this at a meeting of oil marketers and Airline operators held in the National Assembly, today – Monday, March 14, 2022.
Insisting that airlines in the country were rich enough to import their own fuel, the Air Peace chief said: “I have the mandate of all airlines to demand that Airlines begin importation of fuel, if we can buy planes of millions of dollars, we can also import fuel ourselves. Let NNPC give Airlines licenses, we want to import ourselves.”
Just recently, during an earlier meeting at the House of Representatives, which was convened sequel to a motion passed by the House on the need to investigate the sudden and high cost of aviation fuel, Onyema had predicted ahead:
“Unfortunately the fuel scarcity is starting to seriously impact our operations. We are likely to experience flight disruptions today and in the coming days until the situation is resolved.”
Other domestic airlines, including Arik, Dana Air and Ibom Air, also issued similar notices.
On the contrary, the Executive Director, Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Ogbugo Ukoha, had dismissed that there was no scarcity of Jet A1, saying there is enough volume to go round both onshore and offshore for 34 days.
He also hinted that about 28 marketers had been licensed to import the product in the last 3 months, informing that the licence was to last for 90 days, and that from their record, they had 34.9 days of the sufficiency of the product.
Following the stakeholder meeting, which was superintended by the Deputy Speaker, Idris Wase and members of the Committee on Aviation, the House then ordered immediate crashing of price of the product to ensure its availability to airline operators, Nigeria over.
Apparently, the directive was not followed through as the aviation fuel scarcity bit harder afterwards, going by the latest ululation of the Air Peace chairman.
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