Nigeria’s President and Minister of Petroleum, Muhammadu Buhari

Airline operators and passengers in Nigeria may begin to heave a sigh of relief as aviation fuel popularly called Jet A1 crashes to less than N400 per litre in less than 12 hours after the National Assembly held a stakeholders’ meeting at which it ordered a full probe into the sudden rise in the price of the product from N190 per litre to N670per litre in less than two days.

Air passengers had been at the receiving end due to the sudden astronomical rise in the price of Jet A1, which also led to increase in air fares, a development that was further worsened by the disruption and outright cancellation of many flights, which left many of them stranded.

Recall also that the House of Representatives had, following a motion of urgent national importance, directed its Committees on Aviation, Petroleum Downstream and Upstream to meet with the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, NNPC, Limited, Mr Mele Kyari, Director General, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, Musa Nuhu, Jet A1 marketers and airline operators.

Director General of the NCAA, Musa Nuhu, who spoke on an Arise TV interview shortly after the meeting in Abuja, Thursday, disclosed that he has some unconfirmed reports that the price of the Jet A1 has significantly declined to less than N400 per litre few hours after the stakeholders’ meeting with the committees, saying he was working on getting details of such reports.

He noted that the authority as a regulator was equally surprised at the sudden rise in the price of the product, which he argued was unsustainable for the airline operators.

“At the price of N670 per litre of Jet A1, we did a quick calculation and we discovered that for a flight from Lagos to Abuja, the airline operator would spend over 45per cent of its total cost on fuel alone, which is unsustainable because such airline would have keep nearly N3.4million for fuel alone in addition to other running cost.

“We are currently contemplating grounding some airlines because when an airline operator spends over 45per cent of its total running cost on fuel alone, some of them may begin cut corners and what this means is that they may not pay attention to standards, which is bad as it may lead to compromising safety regulations but no decision has been taken on this because we are still monitoring the situation”, the DG said.

Chairman/CEO of Air Peace, Chief Allen Onyema, one of the operators at the meeting, had lamented the astronomic rise in the price of the product just within few days, urging the Federal Government to take urgent steps to address the development, which he argued consists a threat to the growth and development of the aviation industry in the country.

The resolutions of the parliament was sequel to a motion entitled: “Urgent need to investigate the sudden and high cost of aviation fuel which has created an existential threat to airline operations and requires immediate intervention by the Federal Government”, moved by the Chairman, House Committee on Aviation, Nnolim Nnaji.

Presenting the motion, Nnaji, who represents Nkanu East/West Federal Constituency of Enugu State, told the House that the current crisis in Eastern Europe had created so much global tension and had raised the cost of crude oil to over $125 per barrel in the international market, spiking the prices of all petroleum products.

“Nigeria imports 100per cent of Jet A1(aviation fuel) used by airlines in their flight operations and its astronomical increase can impede on airline services. This unprecedented increase in the prices of all petroleum products was not taken into consideration in view of the fact that about a year ago, Jet A1 was selling for N190 per litre.

“As at March 8, 2022, Jet A1 was selling for above N600 per litre and it is not readily available. The local oil marketers are demanding upfront cash payment before fuelling aircrafts.

“If urgent and immediate steps are not taken to ameliorate these challenges mentioned above, airlines and passengers will continue to suffer several consequential economic and travel crises that may lead to total shutdown of air transport services,” he said.