AN uneasy calm prevalent in the global aviation industry over the rising cost of fuel is creeping into domestic sector.
Local airline operators are worried that unless the Federal Government acts promptly and appropriately, oil marketers may transfer the difference in the current price of aviation fuel to passengers in the form of higher airfares.
The anxiety over the likelihood of rise in airfares is occasioned by the persistent rise in the price of crude oil to an all-time $100 per barrel in the international market.
The situation has already taken a toll on aviation fuel, otherwise known as JET-A1, as international carriers have started passing the cost to passengers, by doubling their fuel surcharge from $5 to $10. The surge charge however varies from airline to airline.
The situation has also forced carriers to apply fuel-saving measures for their equipment by retrofitting planes with winglets. Winglets are the vertical extensions of wingtips that improve an aircraft’s fuel efficiency by roughly three per cent.
In Nigeria, airline chiefs expressed the fear yesterday that since fuel pricing is tied to trends in the international market, aviation fuel marketers could contemplate raising the pump price of the commodity. Aviation fuel in Nigeria is regarded as the most expensive in West Africa.
The Assistant Secretary-General of Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), an umbrella body for the domestic carriers, Alhaji Muhammed Tukur, however, lamented that marketers always hide under the rise in the commodity’s price in the international market to jerk up the rates in Nigeria.
Tukur therefore urged the Federal Government to move against the looming increase in the price of the commodity, saying that the carriers would pass the cost to passengers.
This, he feared could lead to airfare increase on the domestic route.
The product cost between N101 and N105 per litre, which forces some carriers intent on reducing cost to refuel in Accra, Ghana and Benin Republic.
Aviation consultant, Mr. Chris Azu Aligbe, said that one of the major difficulties in the domestic sector was tying the pricing of petroleum products to the vagaries of the international market.
He explained that because of that, the prices “we get there will reflect the international price for crude oil and that is why it will definitely have an impact on the aviation fuel in Nigeria and elsewhere.
“You know that has been a problem, because the cost of aviation fuel in Nigeria is higher than most other countries, and that is why it will have an impact on aviation fuel in Nigeria. Until we are able to do our refining at home, to remove the cost of importing refined products, we will continue to suffer the negative impact of rising prices of crude oil in the international market,” he stated.
Aligbe said that where this happens, the cost would be passed on to the passengers, stressing: “I don’t see the airlines being able to absorb the costs.”
Aligbe, who was the spokesman of the liquidated Nigeria Airways, further explained that fuelling accounts for the single highest cost element in operating an aircraft, stressing that for the airlines to remain in business, they would need to raise fears.
He dsaid that there is a great anticipation in rise in air ticket, given what is happening in both the local and international scene.
He said that it was the responsibility of the government to work to disconnect prices from the international crude oil prices because Nigeria is an oil-producing nation, noting that if that happens, the country would do better than non-oil producing nations.