Airline operators are considering increasing air fare to accommodate recent JetA1 price hike and scarcity across the country.
According to sources, the pump price of Aviation fuel commonly called Jet A1, had gone up from N200 to about N220 – N255 per litter in recent weeks, thus raising airlines’ operational costs.
According to an industry source, the operators’s inability to access the fuel, especially outside Lagos, has made it difficult for some Nigerian airlines to keep to scheduled operations.
It was learnt that at the root of the increase is the poor state of roads at the Apapa port in Lagos where the product is stocked upon discharge from ships.
It was also learnt that marketers who import Jet A1 through the Apapa port are incurring extra costs due to the poor road network and infrastructure at the port, which they are transferring to the airlines in form of higher prices.
“In Lagos, the airlines are still able to get the product at N220 per litter, but in Abuja and the other northern states, it is higher; sometimes you get it at N255 per litter because the marketers are now charging more money for trucking (or bridging) the product from the Lagos port to Abuja and the rest of the airports in the northern part of the country,” added the source.
