Indigenous carriers under the aegis of Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) have back down on their threat to suspend flights over the outrageous hike in the price of jet gas , otherwise known as Jet A1.The new move the AON said is to avert further disruption in economic activities across th country considering that sir transportation plays a key role in the logistic mix.AON’s Vice President and Chairman of Air Peace, Chief Allen Onyema disclosed this in a telephone interview.He said the decision was taken the local carriers as a patriotic contribution to the Buhari led administration which is utilizing every instrument by engage stakeholders in the oil and gad and air transport sectors to seek a permanent solution to the problem. He said the AON considered very delicate the precarious situation of aviation fuel scarcity and increment in price as a development that could be exploited for political capital by players in the governance space.Onyema said though it is suffocatingfor local carriers to continue to operate flights under increasing costs regime , as they spend over five million to fill an aircraft with aviation fuel , which could on generate three million revenue for passenger load factor.To cut their losses , Onyema said operators to scale down on the number of flight frequencies so as to minimize cost of operations.He said local carriers were not deliberating any further increase in fares so as not to shut out ordinary Nigerians who desire to travel by air.Onyema said :” Local airlines are not planning to shut down flight operations. Discussions are ongoing between us and the relevant players in the oil and gas value chain to find a lasting solution to the problem.We are negatively impacted by the increasing price of aviation fuel , but as patriotic investors we not nor eat to take any action that will paralysed the economy. If we do , some actors in the governance space would like to make political capital of such .” As patriotic Nigerians and investors we will continue to engage government and it’s agencies on the way out of this problem. Since the Buhari administration came on board it has shown sufficient comitmment to improve the aviation industry by signing an Executive Order that granted waivers on aircraft and its spares and other interventions, the least we could do is to continue to engage until challenges in the sector are resolved. “We are running airlines at a loss because we spend over five million to fill am aircraft with jet gas in return for a paltry three million revenue from passenger ticket sold . To cut our losses we will be reducing flights at least to enable Nigerians move around for economic activities. ” We are not deliberating any further increase in air fares so that the ordinary Nigerian could still travel by air. But, it is getting tougher to run airline business. “
Aviation fuel high price : local carriers back down on suspension of flights
