Operators of domestic airlines in Nigeria have disclosed that they have only three days from Monday to shutdown operations over scarcity of aviation fuel.
Allen Onyema, CEO of Air Peace who disclosed this while addressing a special House of Representatives committee investigating the unavailability of the product with the aim of proffering solutions, said that they cannot afford the fuel anymore.
Onyema who represented airline operators noted that if they were to continue flying, an average Nigerian will spend N120, 000 for an economy ticket.
At the moment, the airlines are buying the fuel at N670 from normal price of 190 recently, even as the product is said to be scarce.
Meanwhile, oil marketers in their presentation to the House committee, said the high dollar rate was responsible for the high cost of the fuel.
Asked by the Deputy Speaker of the House who chaired the committee of how much they purchased the dollar and which banks, the representatives of the marketers could not give an answer.
He therefore warned against blackmailing the government.
In his own remarks, the Group Managing Director of NNPC Limited, Mele Kyari said that at the moment there were 19 oil companies with 88 million litres of aviation fuel in the country.
The meeting is currently ongoing in the House of Representatives, Vanguard reported.