Amid the ongoing scarcity of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) in the country, the price of Jet A1, also known as Aviation fuel has increased from N400 per litre to N420 per litre.
Investors King gathered that the increment took effect on Sunday without prior notice to the aviation companies, with ticket fares skyrocketing by about 63%.
It was also gathered that a lot of travelers had to opt for other options on Monday morning after they discovered that their usual ticket prices had doubled in price.
Investors King had previously reported that the Chief Executive Officer of the United Nigeria Airline, Dr Obiora Okonkwo, had lamented that the domestic airlines are operating in a difficult environment.
According to him, the cost of operations in the aviation sector, as well as the unstable foreign exchange are major challenges to the growth of the sector, adding that the industry has witnessed a lot of inconsistencies in terms of aviation fuel prices.
Aviation fuels are petroleum-based fuels, or petroleum and synthetic fuel blends, used to power aircraft. They have more stringent requirements than fuels used for ground use, such as heating and road transport, and contain additives to enhance or maintain properties important to fuel performance or handling.
For over a week now, scarcity of PMS in the country has worsened, despite the fact that the Nigeria National Petroleum Commission (NNPC) ordered fuel stations to work for 24 hours.
The scarcity, caused by the discovery of methanol quantity above Nigeria’s specification, has led to long fuel queues and gridlock in major parts of the country.
The NNPC has however assured that it has made provision for over a billion litres of petrol that is safe for use in vehicles and machinery.
“NNPC Ltd wishes to reassure Nigerians that it has put adequate measures in place to accelerate the nationwide distribution of PMS earlier disrupted by the quarantine of methanol-blended petrol.
“The quarantine was a necessary step to safeguard our customers from the potential impact of this PMS grade on vehicles and machinery. As of today, NNPC has over One (1) billion Liters of certified PMS stock that is safe for use in vehicles and machinery.
“To accelerate distribution across the country, we have commenced 24-hour operations at our Depots and Retail outlets”, the corporation said in a statement.