Airline operators announce another flight disruptions over aviation fuel scarcity

By our reporter| Nigerian airlines, under the aegis of Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), on Friday said there will be major disruptions of flights due to scarcity of aviation fuel.

AON spokesman, Obiora Okonkwo, who made the disclosure in a statement, said the current situation would lead to cancellations and prolonged delays across all airports in the country.

“This is to notify the members of the public, especially, consumers of air transport services in the country, that the aviation sector has been hit by a major crisis with the acute scarcity of aviation fuel otherwise known as Jet-A1,” the statement reads.

“For this reason, there will be major disruptions in scheduled flight operations, including cancellations and unnecessary delays across all airports in the country.

“This is a foreseen but unintended consequence of the aviation fuel scarcity in the country.”

The operators, therefore, pleaded for the understanding of the travelling public “to bear with our members as efforts are currently being made to address the development and restore normal flight operations”.

AON added that “it is committed to rendering seamless and uninterrupted air transport service across the country”.

Also on Friday, authorities of Ibom Air alerted their customers of the possibility of cancellation of flights amid the recent delay of scheduled flights operated by the airline.

The airline’s General Manager of Marketing and Communication, Aniekan Essienette, while explaining the reasons for the setback in a statement, said the recent difficulty experienced by its customers was a result of the growing unavailability of aviation fuel.

He, however, assured their customers of Ibom Air’s commitment to addressing the situation which he described as unprecedented and disruptive to the airline’s value proposition.

According to the airline’s spokesman, the company will do everything it can to operate its flight schedule as close to 100% as possible and work to restore normalcy as soon as possible.

This is the second announcement on the disruption of services over the scarcity of aviation fuel in three months.

In May, AON said the scarcity of fuel negatively impacted the seamless conduct of air transport operations and “would lead to flight rescheduling, and, or, cancellations”,
and planned to suspend operations but shelved it after intervention by the house of representatives.