Domestic carriers may have lost over N32billion in revenue and additional costs paid for Jet A1 as the price of the product continues to soar owing to its scarcity, ThisDay reports.
The airlines, including Air Peace, Medview, Dana, Aero and Arik Air said the scarcity came at a time passenger traffic had reduced by about 40 percent due to economic downturn. The airlines said the scarcity of the product has made them lose passenger loyalty besides huge revenue losses, as passengers could not book for flights due to the uncertainty and accompanying high fares, which became inevitable in order to defray the high cost of aviation fuel. As at March this year, the average price of Jet A1 was N96 per litre; by May/June it had risen to N140 per litre and by July it soared to over N200 per litre.
According to The Guardian, the Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu has assured that the Federal Government is doing everything possible to tackle the scarcity of aviation fuel. Kachickwu who spoke yesterday to aviation correspondents at the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja said the sector had been privatised and the production of Jet A1 was entirely in the hands of the private sector. He said the government had been trying to work with the private sector to douse the rousing tension. Kachikwu disclosed that in the short term, he had been trying to liaise with countries where there is immediate availability of the product, and in the long term, the government would resume the Jet A1 production in the refineries.
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