The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, has advised airline operators to reduce flight operations following the lingering aviation fuel scarcity situation in the country.
Spokesman of the agency, Sam Adurogboye, on Tuesday, July 19, speaking with Thisday, stated that the aviation authority was making every effort possible to help the airlines to effectively manage the fuel scarcity to ensure that passengers are not subjected to undue suffering.
Adurogboye explained that aviation fuel, known as Jet A1, has been in short supply because the product is imported and the only solution is when the country would begin to refine the product locally.
“Aviation fuel is in short supply because it is imported and marketers have to source for forex and there is high demand for foreign currency.
“We have directed airlines to cut down their operations We told them, if you have sold tickets before now, get across to the passengers in time so that they won’t have to come to the airport and be stranded. They should get across to everybody. This is what we have advised the airlines to do,” Adurogboye said.
The NCAA spokesman also said the Minister of State for Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, had met with the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on how to give concession to oil marketers so that they would be able to source forex and had also reached agreement with the Minister of Petroleum that government would dedicate one of the refineries to produce aviation fuel, and that plan would come on stream soon.
