By Chinelo Obogo
Nigerian airlines have expressed disgust over a sudden increase in price of aviation fuel from N500 to N680.
A source within one of the airlines revealed that despite the resolution reached by stakeholders in March that the price of fuel would be pegged at N500 pending the determination of a substantive uniform price, fuel marketers have again increased the cost to N680. With the newly revised price which has already taken effect, aviation fuel now sells for N680 in Kano and its environs, N650 in Abuja and N600 in Lagos and its environs.
Daily Sun learned that this development has caused major consternation among airlines, many of which are still recovering from the very low passenger traffic of the first quarter of 2022. An airline source said that with the increase, their services will be impacted negatively and some airlines may contemplate shutting down as they would not be able to cope with the high cost of operations.
During one of the meetings held in March at the instance of the House of Representatives Committee on Aviation, Airline Operators in Nigeria (AON) threatened to shut down operations over the non-availability of aviation fuel to run their operations as fuel marketers tried to convince the House on why the prices of the product have skyrocketed.