The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has hinted at a possible hike in the price of airfares for the next seven days to allow domestic airlines to keep operating and avert a possible shutdown of operations.
The minister stated this during an interview with newsmen following an over four-hour closed-door meeting with stakeholders in the aviation industry.
“Airlines cannot continue to operate for the next seven days without raising prices, so let that be clear to the public; they have been stretched to their limit,” he said.
Keyamo also revealed that for the next 48 to 72 hours, key stakeholders would explore fair pricing for Jet A1 fuel to tackle areas where there is possible exploitation by marketers to deliberately punish Nigerians.
Last week, the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) raised the alarm over what it described as a 300 per cent hike in Jet A1 fuel prices from ₦900 per litre as of February 28 to ₦3,300 per litre, warning of dire consequences for the aviation sector.
The group said that the situation could force operators to suspend services if urgent intervention was not made. But energy marketers, under the auspices of Major Energies Marketers Association of Nigeria (MEMAN), pushed back on the allegation, stating that “prices are dictated by market realities” and fluctuations in global crude oil prices, foreign exchange challenges, and logistics costs.
They insisted that there was no deliberate attempt to exploit airlines, noting that supply chain pressures had significantly impacted pricing.
