Passengers stranded as aviation fuel scarcity grounds flights

Hall of the domestic terminal, Murtala
Muhammed Airport, Lagos
Lingering scarcity of aviation fuel,
known as JetA1, yesterday took a harsh
turn, leaving the industry reeling and
almost all outbound flights in Lagos
cancelled and thousands of passengers
stranded.
Hordes of passengers that had thronged
the local wing of Murtala Muhammed
Airport (MMA2) and General Aviation
Terminal (GAT), as early as 6am, had
their hopes dashed.
Perhaps due to antics of the operators
or sheer hope that the scarce product
would arrive to enable the planes fly,
most of the scheduled flights were
severally postponed till they were all
cancelled in the evening.
Except for Arik Air and the likes of First
Nation, Medview and Dana Air that
offered skeletal services in the
afternoon, all other airlines cancelled
their flights, much to the pain of
customers.
An Uyo-bound passenger, Abigail, was
among those Nigerians that had their
day ruined due to the development.
Abigail told The Guardian that she had
being at the MMA2 since 6:30am to
catch the Dana flight to Uyo.
“They started by not telling us anything,
but after several hours of waiting, they
announced that the flight had been
delayed till 1pm. As if that was not
enough, 2pm came, there was nothing,
only to announce at 4pm that the flight
had been cancelled.”
It would be recalled that The Guardian
had last week reported that the local
airlines were running at 50 per cent
short of aviation fuel due to the
scarcity.
General Manager of CITA Aviation
Fueling Limited, Thomas Ogungbangbe,
at the opening of a stakeholders’ forum
on the fuel challenge, said that of about
two million litres aviation fuel required
daily, only half now gets to the
operators.
The Guardian gathered that Jet A1 in
the last couple of months had
constituted between 40 and 50 per cent
of the airlines’ direct operating costs,
with untold effect on the performance
and profit of domestic airline operators.
But for better part of the yesterday,
almost all outbound flights were
cancelled.
Air Peace Airline, in one fell swoop
cancelled five flights at 4:43pm.
Passengers listened in disbelief as a
voice came via the public addressing
system informing that the flights to Port
Harcourt; Abuja (two); Owerri and
Enugu have all been cancelled.