By Nathaniel Zaccheaus
The Senate and the Airline Operators in Nigeria met on Tuesday to discuss the imminent threat to stop operations on Friday this week, as a result of the high cost of Aviation fuel also known as Jet -A1

The airline operators had on Monday met with members of the Aviation Committee in the House of Representatives.

They had threatened to stop operations within 72 hours if the cost of Aviation fuel is not urgently brought down to N500 per liter as against N670 it is, or financial bailout made by the Federal Government to them.

At another meeting with Chairman, Senate Committee on Aviation, Senator Smart Adeyemi ( APC Kogi West, the operator-led by their Chairman, Alhaji Abdulmunaf Yunusa Sarina, repeated the threat by declaring that if nothing is done to save the stressful situation operator-led, Airline Operators will withdraw their services by Friday morning.

Sarina who spoke along with the Chairman, United Nigeria Airline, Mr. Obiora Okonkwo said they cannot cope with the high cost of operation worsened by an upsurge in the price of Aviation fuel.

He insisted that the airlines subsidized operators might carry out the threat on Thursday because the fuel marketers had yet to start selling the Jet-A1 at N500 agreed upon at the House of Representatives on Monday.

He said, “We are not sure yet that we would not carry out our plans to shut down operations on Friday because up till now the marketers have not started selling fuel at N500.

“They are still selling at N670 and we cannot continue to subsidize because doing so would make us run out of business.”

He said, “Based on the cost component of Airline operation in Nigeria today, the actual price for the ticket of one hour flight is N150,000 which is being subsidized to N50,000 per passenger”

“We are overburdened by this ticket subsidy and heavily indebted to Banks with consequences of running out of business if required actions are not taken “, he said.

Worried by the threat and pathetic situation at hand, Adeyemi passionately appealed to the Airline Operators to give the Senate and by extension, the National Assembly a few days to wade into the matter through interface with the Federal Government.

He said the issue will be raised on the floor of the Senate during plenary on Wednesday to make the Federal Government give the operators, expected bailout.

He said, “Your threat to stop flying from Friday this week, is too tough an order. Aviation is life and there is no way the Senate and government generally, will allow such to happen.

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“Your complaints are genuine and will surely be looked into. The Senate would intervene to ensure that the airline operators carry out their activities with minimal pain.

“The senate president and all senators are very worried by the threat from the operators and the Senate would not keep quiet over the matter.

“We would ensure that the executive does the needful to release bailout to the airline operators it pays all of us to make the aviation fuel very robust.

“Please give us some time for the Senate to see what we can achieve. So we want you to extend your ultimatum to the down tool. Er would ensure that you get the required palliative so that there won’t be a crisis,”, he pleaded.

Also at the meeting were representatives of the Director-General of Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Captain Chris Najomo, Secretary Airline Operators, Mr. Zamani Solomon, etc.