Nigerian Airlines Reach Truce with Government, Get Jet Fuel at N480 per Litre, Cancel Shutdown Plan

By Derrick Bangura

The Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) on Monday reached a truce with the leadership of Nigeria’s House of Representatives and other government agencies to cancel the plan of shutting down flight operations in the country. The operators had last Friday announced their plan to stop flight operations due to the high of cost of aviation fuel that had risen to N700 per litre. This, was however shelved.

Meanwhile, at a meeting attended by the airline operators, the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, (NNPC) Mele Kyari, the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele and other stakeholders, the operators agreed to cancel the planned suspension of their services.

At the meeting chaired by the Speaker of the House, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, it was agreed that six million litres of jet fuel would be made available through the intervention of the CBN governor, at the rate of N480 to the operators.

As a long term measure they also resolved that the operators would begin the process of application for their licence to import jet fuel directly for their operations.

Reading the resolutions Gbajabiamila said: “That we move the language of suspension to canceled. That the issues of shut down has been canceled based on this meeting.

“The NNPC and the airline operators both agreed that in the interim of three months, the marketers of choice that you are comfortable with and you know their markup will not drive you out of business would be supplied with jet fuel.

“The third resolution is that in the mid-to-long term, in fact right now, you will begin the process of application for your own license for you to be able to import your own jet fuel, to assist you in your business. Also to the benevolence of the CBN governor that six million litres are available now at N480.

“You will get allocation for the next three months through the companies you have nominated. In the process of application for license, midstream should as much as possible grant waivers that would not touch on the security and safety of the process. Committee chairmen on aviation and downstream should follow up.”

Speaking for the airline operators, the Vice President of AON, Mr. Allen Onyema, alleged that their woes in the industry was compounded when the Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited refused to make available 25,000 metric tonnes of aviation fuel approved by President Muhammadu Buhari to be sold to them at landing rates to ameliorate the losses they suffered over the months.

Onyema who is the Chairman of Air Peace, told the gathering how his association was invited by the Nigeria Midstream and Downstream Regulatory Authority (NMDRA) to notify them of the President’s gesture, and the need for them to nominate trusted and established marketers to take delivery of the 25,000 MT and sell to them at the landing rate.

He said having nominated 10 established marketers to take the product, he, in the presence of his members, called the NNPC GMD informing him of the President’s gesture and that their selected marketers would be in touch regarding the product, adding that Kyari refused.

“We were told that a week later that is when the consignment would be arriving Nigeria and when this happened, the next we got to hear from the marketers was that they had already been given the consignment that we were all jostling for.

“So we waited thinking that they would sell as agreed. They never. I actually called the MD of NNPC, in the presence of our members. We wanted to hear from him. He answered that there was no way they would leave us to get direct products that it was dangerous.

“But I said no, that the marketers you are going to give are the same marketers that would handle it for us. He said he did not want any crash or anybody adulterating it. I said how could they adulterate it because they are the same marketers.

“We are not taking it on our own. Long and short of the story is that this product was not given to us and we noticed that it continued rising and rising,” he said.

The President of the Association, Abdulmanaf Yunusa who’s also the Chairman of Azman Air, corroborated the allegation levelled against the NNPC GMD.

In his response, Kyari said they considered safety issues involved in releasing aviation fuel directly to operators, or even marketers, saying that not everyone can handle ADK which necessitated his refusal.

“It is more complex than they say. Somebody must handle aviation fuel. We cannot surrender the safety of Nigerians to just anyone. It is not every marketing company that can handle ATK including the chairman’s company.

“We cannot give him. He has a marketing company. We cannot give ATK to handle. That is why they have to bring the people that we can deal with,” the GMD said.

When asked by Gbajabiamila if they can nominate those that can handle it, he said “why not, we have no problem with that.”

Asked to comment on the possibility of granting forex at a special rate for the airlines, Emefiele told the gathering that there was nothing the apex bank could do since it depends on forex generated by the NNPC through crude oil sales which has been quite low due to oil thefts in the Niger Delta.

“The availability of forex is very important and the issue of constraint from forex arising from issues bordering on theft in the Niger Delta is a big issue. It is when NNPC is able to export that dollars can come in.

“We do not have forex to sell. It would be difficult for us to grant any concession. It means we would be taking a hit or we would be providing some sort of subsidy for the industry”, Emefiele said.