Airline operators in Nigeria have threatened to embark on a nationwide strike over the hike in aviation fuel.
According to Chief Allen Onyema, the Vice President of Airline Operators of Nigeria, the body called on the Federal Government to intervene on the increasing cost of aviation fuel or be greeted with a shutdown of aviation services in the next 72 hours.
The new development follows a resumption of meetings with oil marketers, regulators, and the leadership of the House of Representatives on Monday.
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The Air Peace boss noted that with the current cost of fuel, the operators cannot sustain their operations.
“If they (oil marketers) don’t come down from their high horse, I am sorry to say that we have only three days of operation left.
“We know the importance of aviation to the economy. Currently, the average price per seat is N70, 000. We have not included the cost of insurance to that.
“All the Insurance companies in this country cannot insure one aircraft. So, we have to go outside the country to get insurance for our aircraft.
“We cannot continue to subsidise the industry. If we must continue to operate at this rate, then the average cost per ticket will be around N150, 000 and that will not be good for the economy.”
Aviation fuel, also known as Jet A1, which originally sold for N190/litre, rose to N360/litre in January, before skyrocketing to between N579 and N607/litre last week Tuesday.
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