An airliner being fueled
Airline
operators in the country have again cried out to the Federal Government
to see to their plight in the area of aviation fuel and multiple
charges levied by the regulatory agencies.
The operators, who claimed to be at the mercy of both the fuel
marketers and regulators, said a proper review of both fuel cost and
multiple charges would enable the airlines survive the current financial
distress.
It would be recalled that aviation fuel, otherwise called Jet-A1, is
100 per cent imported into the country and subject to the vagaries of
the foreign exchange (forex) market.
While the industry has over the years struggled with supply shortage, the recent spike and scarcity in the forex market have more than doubled the pump price of aviation fuel.
The product currently sells for N204 per litre in places like Lagos
and Abuja. Same product goes for about N240 per litre in the northern
part of the country.
Aviation fuel alone account for about 30 per cent of the total
operating cost of an airline, of which some airlines are heavily
indebted to marketers.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Med-View Airlines, Muneer Bankole,
said effective price control of the product is most imperative to
alleviate the financial difficulty faced by the airlines.
Bankole said: “Jet-A1 remains very crucial to the aviation sector and
we have said it severally. At the beginning of this administration we
thought they were going to create a window in one of the refineries to
get this product and bring down exposure of dollars.
“Today, fuel is at the mercy of the marketers. They are selling now
at N204. In January last year, it was N101 per litre and some were
selling at N98. Today it is N204 and up to Maiduguri and Yola, it can go
as high as N240 because the fuel marketers claim that they are looking
for dollar to get the product in for us.
“We have spoken with the minister and he has been moving around with
us on this journey. We expect lot more to be done in the area of fuel,”
he said.
Stakeholders have consistently called on the Federal Government to
refine the product locally. Apparently in response, the Minister of
State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika, recently hinted that the Kaduna
refinery would be dedicated to refining of aviation fuel. Nothing has
been heard about the project since the pronouncement.
Chairman of the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), Capt. Nogie
Meggison, said recently that consistent shortage of the product for
airlines to conduct their operations led to reduction in operations by
50 per cent.
Meggison said: “We have been forced to cry out about the perennial
problem at this juncture because it continues to put us in a difficult
situation to go an extra mile to fulfill our obligations to our esteemed
customers in spite of the inconveniences that go with it.
“However, we are at the mercy of the oil marketers and many times our
hands are tied such that we are left with no other option than to
cancel flights,” he said.
In the area of alleged multiple charges, Bankole said that the
charges, some of them frivolous, have continued to over-burden the
operators, leaving the airlines in dire straits.
He said in ideal settings, all the five agencies of government would
have a single pocket, while the regulatory authority among them shares
the proceeds.
“This is because the rest are just service providers. They collect
their landing and parking charges among others. The truth is that we are
in very difficult situation. We pay Federal Inland Revenue Service
(FIRS), Lagos Inland Revenue Service (LIRS) and others. It is all about
paying and we have no money left.
“We will not be tired of saying this. Government must change its attitude and support the aviation industry because it is the only window through which the government can speak to the external world. Most of the corporate entities in this country cannot fly your name like the airlines will do,” Bankole said.
Coordinator of the Nigeria Aviation Safety Initiative (NASI), Capt.
Dung Pam, noted that there are no fewer than seven categories of charges
levied by the regulatory agencies, some of which are still meaningless.
Apart from the Value Added Tax (VAT), Passengers Service Charge
(PSC), there are air bridge charge, Common Users Terminal Access charge,
rent, power users charge and so on, all on the airlines.
SOURCE:- guardian.ng
