Again, Fuel Scarcity Paralyses Flight Operations
24 May 2015
By This Day Life
An Aero Contractors aircraft |
Three weeks after domestic airlines cancelled flights for few days due
to lack of Jet A1, known as aviation fuel, a worse scenario seems to be
in the offing as many of the operators cancelled their flights Saturday
and have stopped selling tickets due to uncertainty of future fuel
supply.
It started on Monday when the Chairman of Air Peace, a new domestic
carrier, Allen Onyema, warned of the impending crisis as it became
difficult to source Jet A1, which constitutes about 40 per cent of
airlines’ operational expenses.
By yesterday Arik Air, Aero Contractors, Med View, Air Peace and other airlines had cut down their operations, cancelling most of their flights because of the non-availability of aviation fuel.
By yesterday Arik Air, Aero Contractors, Med View, Air Peace and other airlines had cut down their operations, cancelling most of their flights because of the non-availability of aviation fuel.
The failure of the oil marketers to airlift petroleum products due to
government’s inability to pay the huge subsidy debts, amounting to
several billions of naira, prompted the National Union of National Gas
Workers (NUPENG) and Petroleum and National Gas Senior Staff Association
of Nigeria (PEGASSAN) to embark on strike, demanding payment for their
services.
On Saturday Nigeria’s biggest operator, Arik Air cancelled all their
domestic flights as their Lagos to London flight had to go through Kano
to fuel before flying to London because the airline could not source
about 120,000 litres needed for the aircraft in Lagos.
Aero Contractors cancelled its flights, but was able to operate Asaba,
Warri and Benin and on Friday it delayed its Calabar to Lagos flights
till Saturday as the airline was unable to source fuel in time, so when
it landed in Calabar, Friday, it could not get back to Lagos that
evening because the airport is on visual flight rule, so there is no
night operation due to lack of airfield lighting.
Also on Saturday, First Nation Airways was only able to operate Lagos Abuja flight; Medview operated Lagos to Abuja and Abuja to Yola flights and cancelled the rest of their flights.
There was no hope that the airlines would operate any flights today and
by Monday indications show that nation’s economy will be grounded to a
halt as there would be no domestic flight operations.
Aero in a statement said, “Due to the general scarcity of aviation fuel
(Jet A1) in the country, the airline will not be able to operate over
80 per cent of her domestic flights as scheduled.
In the last few weeks, the supply of aviation fuel has been very
irregular, which has compelled the airline to cancel some flights. We
apologise to our esteemed customers for the inconvenience they may have
been experiencing due to flight delays and cancellations caused by the
scarcity of aviation fuel.
“We urge our customers to always check our website at www.flyaero.com
or contact the call centre agent on 016284140 to affirm if their
scheduled flight will operate. Aero regrets any inconvenience the
changes will cause. All measures are being made to ameliorate the
situation and revert to her regular flight schedule. We hope that the
situation improves very soon.”
The domestic carriers need over 2.5 million litres of aviation fuel
every day for full flight operation but by Friday all the tank farms at
the airport in Lagos seemed drained and trucking from the Apapa depot
had since stopped since NUPENG embarked on industrial action.
On the international routes, foreign carriers have been delaying
flights for up to 48 hours and by Thursday, many of the airlines arrived
Nigeria with fuel and only top up on arrival and it was while waiting
to top up fuel that the flights are delayed.
On Thursday, Virgin Atlantic had to fly to Ghana to refuel before
airlifting its Nigerian flights to London and many of the airlines with
large body aircraft arrive Nigeria fully laden with return and endurance
fuel, knowing that they would not be able to refuel in Nigeria.
“Many of the foreign airlines only need to top up their tank with about
45,000 to 50, 000 litres of fuel; they come here fully loaded but just
needed top up. British Airways which operates Boeing 747 aircraft which
can fly non-stop for 14 hours come here with all the fuel it needs, but
then it has to face the challenge of take-off weight; that is why they
may come with a little less and then top up in Nigeria,” explained an
insider.
If the scarcity continues this week, the nation’s economy will be
paralysed as travel by air and by land will become impossible.
No comments:
Post a Comment