The Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) on Monday reached a truce with the leadership of Nigeria’s House of Representatives and other government agencies to cancel the plan of shutting down flight operations in the country.
The operators had last Friday announced their plan to stop flight operations due to the high of cost of aviation fuel that had risen to N700 per litre. This, was however shelved.
Meanwhile, at a meeting attended by the airline operators, the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, (NNPC) Mele Kyari, the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele and other stakeholders, the operators agreed to cancel the planned suspension of their services.
At the meeting chaired by the Speaker of the House, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, it was agreed that six million litres of jet fuel would be made available through the intervention of the CBN governor, at the rate of N480 to the operators.
As a long term measure they also resolved that the operators would begin the process of application for their licence to import jet fuel directly for their operations.
Reading the resolutions Gbajabiamila said: “That we move the language of suspension to canceled. That the issues of shut down has been canceled based on this meeting.
“The NNPC and the airline operators both agreed that in the interim of three months, the marketers of choice that you are comfortable with and you know their markup will not drive you out of business would be supplied with jet fuel.
“The third resolution is that in the mid-to-long term, in fact right now, you will begin the process of application for your own license for you to be able to import your own jet fuel, to assist you in your business. Also to the benevolence of the CBN governor that six million litres are available now at N480.
“You will get allocation for the next three months through the companies you have nominated. In the process of application for license, midstream should as much as possible grant waivers that would not touch on the security and safety of the process. Committee chairmen on aviation and downstream should follow up.”
