Why Indigenous Airlines May Shut Down Operations From Monday

There are indications that indigenous airline operations may be forced to shut down operations from Monday for very sundry reasons.
And except their concerns are addressed and promptly too, there are no clear sign when they could call off the strike.
Their umbrella association, the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) says the astronomical hike in Jet-A1 price and other operating costs would be reasons.
AON President, Capt. Serina Abdulmunaf, has said these much in a letter addressed AON sent to the Minister of Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority on Friday in Lagos.
In the letter, Abdulmunaf expressed concern, over the cost of aviation fuel, saying it had continued to rise.
Such an astronomical rise, the president said, had become a threat on operational sustainability of airline companies, also, financial viability.
He regretted that this was unsustainable and the Indigenous airlines could no longer absorb the pressure.
“While aviation fuel worldwide is said to cost about 40 per cent of an airline’s operating cost globally, the present hike has shut up Nigeria’s operating cost to about 95 per cent.
“In the face of this, airlines have engaged the Federal Government, the National Assembly, NNPC and Oil Marketers with the view to bringing the cost of JetA1 down, which has currently made the unit cost per seat for a one hour flight in Nigeria today to an average of N120,000.
“However, the latter cannot be fully passed to passengers who are already experiencing a lot of difficulties,” he said.
Indigenous airline operators, their president added, had been the ones bearing some costs of these rise in operational costs saying they were not in the mood to continue to do so.
“Overtime, aviation fuel price (JetA1) has risen from N190 per litre to N700 currently. No airline in the world can absorb this kind of sudden shock from such an astronomical rise over a short period”, Abdulmunaf said.
READ ALSO: Woman Found Dead 10 Months After Marriage To The Holy Spirit

According to him, AOM was appreciative of the efforts of the current administration of President Muhammadu Buhari towards growth of the air transport in the country, but regretted that the prevailing conditions were making things for his members.
He did not stopped there, but has advised air travelers to consider alternatives modes as they planned their itinerary after now.