Airline operators appeal to FG to reduce cost of aviation fuel

Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) on Friday appealed to the Federal Government to reduce the cost of aviation fuel for airline operators to remain in business.
Chairman of the AON, Capt. Nogie Meggison, who made the appeal, said that airline operators were spending up to 40 per cent of their operational cost on fuel.
He said that high cost of buying fuel was crippling the operations of many airlines and forcing them to close shops.
Meggison said that as an oil bearing country, Nigerian airlines should not be paying the current high price of N170 per litre for gasoline.
He appealed to government to support indigenous airlines by reviewing the price of aviation fuel downwards.
He said a Boeing 737 aircraft consumed about 2812.5 litres of fuel for a 50 minutes flight from Lagos to Abuja.
“When multiplied by N170.00 per litre, this will cost an airline with that aircraft type about N478,125 for that 50 minutes flight,’’ the AON chairman said.
He suggested that government should invite oil marketers to a roundtable to see how they could reach a compromise to bring the cost of aviation fuel down.
He also complained of high charges by aviation agencies, including the five per cent tax on tickets by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority.
“These multiple charges are paid to the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria and the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency,’’ Meggison said.
Meggison said that the charges were stifling the growth of indigenous airlines.
The chairman stressed that the situation explained why it was difficult for many investors to venture into the aviation sector, adding that it also explained why Nigerian operators had limited capacity.
Meggison lamented that Nigeria having over 170 million people had barely six operating airlines, many of them with few aircraft in their fleet.
“The challenge in running an airline in Nigeria is enormous. It is just the matter of doing something that made us go into the business.”
Meggison, however, lauded government for the waiver on customs duty for commercial planes and parts imports, saying that the Nigerian Customs Service was cooperating to make the waiver work.