There was a chaotic scene at the departure hall of the Murtala Muhammed Airport Terminal as Air Nigeria passengers protested delay and subsequent cancellation of scheduled flights.
A passenger, James Ikechukwu who was supposed to travel with the Airline to Owerri, said “I had bought my ticket earlier to travel to Owerri and went through the boarding process. I was given my boarding pass and admitted to the departure hall. But we waited and at every interval, an announcement came from the public address system that the flight had been delayed due to operational reasons.
“By 2 pm, we were still waiting and when we demanded to know why we were being kept indefinitely, we were told that there was no fuel to fly.”
Unconfirmed reports said there was a fight between the airline officials and passengers.
Airlines in Nigeria have been having running battle with fuel marketers who jerked up the price of the product from N120 per liter to about N150 to N162 depending on the location.
They have also insisted that the airlines pay cash and carry for their fuel and this has become a problem with the airline operators as fuel now accounts for about 45 per cent of their operating cost.
Director General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) Dr Harold Demuren condemned the rising cost of the Jet A-1, saying it was unreasonable and unsustainable.
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