Cost of fuelling aircraft rises by 350 per cent

By Philippine Duru

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The cost of fuelling aircraft has risen sharply in recent months, the industry data has revealed.

The data showed that fuelling a Bombardier CRJ 900 or Airbus A220, which cost about N2.1 million per flight in January, has surged to approximately N7.6 million as of April 26, a 350 per cent increase.

The vice president of AON, Allen Onyema, attributed the spike partly to global tensions, including the US-Iran crisis, but argued that local price increases are disproportionate to international trends.

“Since the advent of the US-Iran war, there has been a spike in aviation fuel price in Nigeria, which we feel is not proportionate to the hike internationally,” Onyema said.

“We expect that in the next 48 hours something drastic should be done because no airline will fly in this country in the next seven days if nothing is done—not because they don’t want to fly, but because fuel may not be available to us at sustainable pricing.”

On Monday, the group manager, Marketing and Communication, Ibom Air, Aniekan Essienette, disclosed that the carrier could begin reducing flight frequencies in the coming days as fuel costs reach unsustainable levels.

According to the airline, operators can no longer continue flying merely to cover fuel costs.

Essienette described the current pricing regime as an “unprecedented crisis,” stressing that it had become financially unsustainable for domestic carriers.

She revealed that the cost of fuelling a single flight had more than tripled within a short period.

According to her, while Ibom Air spent an average of N2.1 million per flight in January, that figure had risen to about N7.6 million as of April 26, representing a 350 per cent increase.

Despite the emergence of the Dangote Refinery, which reportedly supplies over 95 per cent of Nigeria’s Jet A1 fuel, the airline expressed concern that domestic prices remain significantly higher than global benchmarks.

“Domestic airlines are baffled at why the price of aviation fuel in Nigeria has ballooned to this level, far above what obtains in other parts of the world,” the airline said.

It added that while international carriers typically cut capacity in response to even modest fuel increases, Nigerian airlines have continued to absorb steep cost pressures in a bid to keep fares affordable.

Ibom Air, which operates a fleet of Bombardier CRJ 900 and Airbus A220 aircraft, said it can no longer sustain normal operations under current conditions.

“It is clear to us that the current conditions are unsustainable,” Essienette said. “We will have to take whatever ameliorating actions we can in the days ahead, including reducing our capacity if necessary.”