Fuel Scarcity Halts Airline Operations,leaves millions Stranded in Nigeria

At the Abuja airport, many passengers, who arrived the Abuja airport with the intention of traveling out of the city, had their flights cancelled due to the near total scarcity of aviation fuel to run the aircraft of the various domestic carriers, leaving thousands of air travelers stranded across airports yesterday,Saturday in Nigeria.
Spokespersons of Arik and Aero said  fuel scarcity would not have affected the airlines if the country had pipelines which deliver JetA1 to airports, as is obtainable in other climes.

Arik staff,Banji Ola, said the airline cancelled its domestic flights nationwide, but was still operating international flights.
He said,

“We had to cancel our domestic flights because of lack of aviation fuel to run the aircraft. Our international flights are still running. We had a case of an international flight to London travelling to Kano to refuel before heading for its destination.”

Aero Contractors spokesperson, Mr. Simon Tumba, stated that the airline’s flights were also cancelled due to aviation fuel challenges in a statement said,

“Due to the general scarcity of aviation fuel (JetA1) in the country, the airline (Aero) will not be able to operate over 80 per cent of her domestic flights as scheduled.“In the last few weeks, the supply of aviation fuel has been very irregular, which has compelled the airline to cancel some flights. We apologise to our esteemed customers for the inconvenience they may have been experiencing due to flight delays and cancellations caused by the scarcity of aviation fuel.”It said, “We urge our customers to always check our website or contact the call centre agent to affirm if their scheduled flight will operate.“Aero regrets any inconvenience the changes will cause. All measures are being made to ameliorate the situation and revert to her regular flight schedule. We hope that the situation improves very soon.”