A week after the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) intervened to resolve the aviation fuel crisis in the country, investigations revealed that supply from the NNPC has been used up as airlines grappled with price hikes amid scarcity.
The fuel scarcity forced most airlines to increase their fare to N55,000 as the base fare benchmark. Just recently, with the fuel scarcity still ravaging the aviation sector, domestic airlines in Nigeria have further raised their fare above the N50,000 base fare, with some airline tickets sold up to N60,000, as the fuel crisis in the industry continues to linger.
The scarcity has greatly affected the aviation sector on seamless conduct of air transport operations, which has led to a lot of flight cancellations and rescheduling. These airlines are also faced with the issue of low patronage, as not everyone can afford the base fare, and things have gone worse as most airlines have raised their fare to even N80,000.
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There have been complaints from a lot of Nigerians as their plans and schedules have been altered due to the outrageous amount of airline fare prices. Recall that two weeks ago, airlines in the country threatened to shut down operations due to an increase in aviation fuel prices, but after swift intervention from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the house of representatives, and the aviation ministry, the airlines had to desist from shutting down to continue operating.
The fuel crisis disrupting airline operations in the country is simply a result of the failure of the leadership. I am always perplexed as to why a country so rich in crude oil will be faced with shortage of fuel. What an irony! The government has to be blamed for not building a functioning refinery that would have helped to mitigate the fuel crisis.
Despite the huge billions of naira being invested in building a refinery over the years, there has been a lot of sabotage which has made things not work. There is an urgent need for Nigeria’s local refineries to be fixed as a matter of national emergency, to put an end to this reoccurring fuel crisis.
This aviation fuel crisis negatively impacts the nation’s economy as air transportation, with its associated complex networks, is a major source of transportation for people, goods, and services. The air transport sector contributes about N59 billion to the national GDP of Nigeria, which supports about 159,000 jobs and pays about N8.5 billion in tax annually.
Jet fuel scarcity leads to consequential flight disruptions and cancellations which have mostly become a yearly occurrence in the country. The government must understand that adequate fuel supply and availability of fuel for airlines in the country is very vital for economic sustainability.
It might interest you to know that all jet fuel consumption in Nigeria is imported, which creates pressure on the jet fuel supply chain. Hence, importation may not always be sufficient to meet the needs of the airlines in the country. The government must be hell-bent on building refineries, not just to refine fuel, but also to produce jet fuel locally, to mitigate the issue of the jet fuel crisis, as sometimes the process of obtaining jet fuel takes a lot of time which is not ideal for a nation’s airline sector.
Air transportation is critical to businesses and other economic activities in Nigeria, as it is one of the major sources of revenue for the country which generates earnings from both passengers and cargo movements.