Nigerian airlines faced two major problems in 2016. The first was lack of forex and the second, inadequate supply of aviation fuel. Technically, lack of forex has also contributed to the paucity of the product, also known as Jet A1, as oil marketers who import the fuel said they were unable to secure enough dollars to bring the product in large quantities to meet airlines’ demand.
Recently, the marketers said they requested for more forex from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to give them more dollars but their request was not met by the apex bank, a situation which made it impossible for them to import enough aviation fuel to meet airlines’ demand. Meanwhile, there is enough kerosene and petrol, which explains why there has not been any report of scarcity of the products, except aviation fuel.
But many industry observers had countered the argument, noting that even before recession, when there was enough foreign exchange in the years past, oil marketers never imported aviation fuel to meet airlines demand at a good price, insisting that the marketers always make the supply inadequate in order to keep the price higher than what obtains in other countries in West and Central Africa, which are also importing the product.
Presently, acute scarcity of the product has eroded airline operation. The product is presently sold in Lagos at minimum of N240 per litre and as high as N310 per litre in order parts of the country.
The paucity of the product has led to flight cancellation and delays. Sometimes angry passengers become violent because they could not understand why airlines should schedule a flight and later cancel it, often times, without notifying passengers.
THISDAY investigations revealed that those behind the public address system at the airports do not tell passengers that airline cancelled flight because it could not get aviation fuel. The management the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has it as policy that passengers should not be told that an airline cancelled flight because it could not source aviation fuel to operate its equipment. According to the agency, saying that would amount to criticising government, which put a faulty system that made it inevitable that aviation fuel and other petroleum products are imported.
Investigations also revealed that smaller airlines easily buy fuel to operate their flights because their requirement is limited. For example, 100,000 litres of aviation fuel can serve Dana Air for days to provide efficient flight services to its passengers. That volume of the product can also ensure that Air Peace operates all its flights a day. But Medview airline, which also operates international destinations needs over 300, 000 litres of aviation fuel to operate its flights.
Arik Air, which operates 70 percent of all the domestic flights, faces a bigger challenge. Its flight to New York takes 98, 000 litres of Jet A1, which means that volume, can only serve one international flight. To operate its flight to London, Arik Air needs 60, 000 litres of aviation fuel and flights to Accra, Ghana and Abidjan in Ivory Coats would cost the airline, additional 40,000 litres.
“So what we need this Yuletide season is about 800,000 or more litres of Jet A1 for us to operate 140 flights daily. On normal days we operate 100 to 120 flights a day but during Christmas we operate over 140 flights a day. But because of inadequate supply of aviation fuel we operate between 70 to 80 flights daily so we are forced to cancel and delay flights. And because we are European Aviation Safety Agency’s (EASA) certified airline, we don’t just buy fuel from any marketer. We patronise internationally recognised marketers like Total, MRS and Sahara. We have our insurance, which stipulates our quality,” said a source from the airline.
So for most of the airlines to be delaying flights or even cancelling flights means that the scarcity has become so acute that it could paralyse domestic air travel and international airlines would have to source Jet A1 from neighbouring African countries as they have been doing for months now.
The impact of the scarcity has forced airfares up to over 200 percent increase and still rising. The scarcity has also caused uncertainty because a traveller who is rushing to the airport to meet the schedule of his flight may on arrival spend two or more hours before he could board his flight. He may even wait that long and the flight would be cancelled. But the public announcer may not tell him that the flight was cancelled because the airline could not source fuel; rather she would say “due to operational reasons”. Imagine how angry that passenger would feel? That is what has given rise to the current air rage experienced recently at the airports.
So what the airlines do is to send messages to passengers, depending on the promise of supply. When they are sure that certain volume of fuel would be supplied they earmark the number of flights they would operate. But unfortunately, sometimes the marketers do not fulfill their promise and even the scheduled flight would be cancelled.
THISDAY also learnt that the marketers prefer to sell to foreign airlines that pay in dollars, which is a very scarce commodity in Nigeria right now.
However, there is hope. THISDAY learnt that last Thursday the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which could not withstand the shenanigans of oil marketers any more, decided to import 125 tons of aviation fuel from Ivory Coast (Cote d ’Ivoire) and it is expected that by this weekend, the product would start arriving Nigeria. But there are key issues that might cause further delay. One, instead of getting a vessel that would bring in the whole consignment once, NNPC chose small vessel that could take 8000 tons at a time, so the vessel would bring the product in three consignments.
One of the reasons why aviation fuel has not been available, THISDAY learnt, was the there is priority that petrol and kerosene should be discharged first before aviation fuel, which is considered as product of the elites.
Industry operators agree that permanent solution to aviation fuel scarcity is local refining of the product; that the present epileptic supply would continue until when Nigeria would begin to refine the product locally.
THISDAY
