The Federal Government on Tuesday disclosed that it currently has no solution to the challenges facing the country’s viation sector adding that the cause of the major crisis in the industry is a global challenge and not peculiiar to nigeria only.
According to the federal government, despite efforts to bring the issue salvage the situation, it cannot say exactly when the issue will come to an end.
Truthlive.net recalls that the high cost of aviationa fuel also known as JetA1 has almost grounded the activities of Domestic airlines in the country.
The price of the fuel has hiked in the past five months so much that the product which sells for about 300 per litre is now currently sold at N800 per litre.
Expectedly, airfares were also increased by airlines to enable them purchased the commodity. although some airlines are managing to survive amid the tight situation, several others like Aero contractor have folded up and suspended operatiions as it could not longer cope cost of management.
Similarly, the airlines operating currently, have continued to delay or cancel flights as a result of the difficulty in accessing JetA1, sometimes leaving passengers stranded.
In a meeting with officials of the Airline Operators of Nigeria in Abuja on Tuesday, the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, stated that the government was aware of the challenges, but noted that there was no immediate solution to the concerns currently.
According to him, “Energy crises is real and it is global. Today there is an aviation fuel problem all over the world. From America to New Zealand. It is aggravating in Nigeria because we don’t produce the product.
“It is aggravated also because the foreign exchange is scarce in Nigeria and the source of earning the foreign exchange has also has dwindled”.
He added: “The Federal Government had in the past sourced 10,000 metric tonnes of aviation fuel for domestic airlines, adding that the government was willing to do more.”
“As we speak, the government is in the process of finding a permanent solution to this issue.”
The minister mentioned some of the solutions to include, “importation of the product at the appropriate price, accelerating the refurbishment of our refineries and also wait for the coming on stream of Dangote Refinery to boost supply of the product.”
However, he noted that this would not happen soon.
“So when you ask how soon, I wouldn’t know when Dangote will come on stream, I wouldn’t know how soon the refineries will be fixed. I wouldn’t know when imports would become sufficient. But the government is working towards all these to happen,” Sirika stated.
Also, The minister said “I would meet with relevant stakeholders including the Central Bank of Nigeria so that the airlines could access forex at the official rate rather than the black market price.”
in the same vein, AON President Abdulmunaf Sarina explained that “the aviation fuel crises began from N180/litre, but had now jumped to N1000/litre, adding that accessing forex crises was a huge burden on the Industry.
“The rate at which the dollar is escalating now is very alarming. Everyday, a difference between of N10 to N15 Naira is added at the parallel market. Last week Monday, it was N610 but today it is N670 to one dollar,” he said.