{"id":32116,"date":"2026-04-16T13:02:41","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T11:02:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&p=32116"},"modified":"2026-04-16T13:02:41","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T11:02:41","slug":"nigerian-airlines-threaten-to-halt-flights-over-soaring-jet-fuel-prices","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/nigerian-airlines-threaten-to-halt-flights-over-soaring-jet-fuel-prices\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigerian airlines threaten to halt flights over soaring jet fuel prices"},"content":{"rendered":"
Nigerian airlines will suspend all flight \u200boperations from April 20, they warned, unless crippling jet fuel prices, which \u200cthey accused the country’s fuel marketers of artificially inflating, are reduced.<\/div>\n
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The Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), an industry body grouping around a dozen mainly domestic carriers, wrote to the Major Energies Marketers Association \u200bof Nigeria on April 14, complaining that jet fuel prices had risen \u200bby about 270% since late February.<\/div>\n
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Global oil and fuel prices have surged \u2060since the onset of the Iran war, as the conflict severely hinders shipping through \u200bthe critical Strait of Hormuz.<\/div>\n
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But in the letter seen by Reuters,<\/em> AON called the jet \u200bfuel increase in Africa’s most populous nation “astronomical and artificial,” saying it far outpaced global crude oil prices.<\/div>\n
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“Currently, airline revenues are insufficient to cover the cost of fuel alone,” it said.<\/div>\n
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Soaring jet fuel prices have upended the global aviation industry, \u200bforcing airlines to raise fares, curb growth plans and rethink forecasts.<\/div>\n
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AON said that raising ticket prices \u200cto \u2060reflect the fuel costs airlines are facing in Nigeria could lead to low passenger numbers, while a shutdown of airline operations would have broader repercussions, hurting banks, costing jobs and worsening insecurity.<\/div>\n
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Jet fuel typically accounts for 30% to over 40% of African airlines’ \u200boperating costs, compared \u200bwith a global average \u2060of 20% to 25%, according to the African Airlines Association, making them particularly vulnerable to price surges.<\/div>\n
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Nigeria\u2019s aviation sector consumed about \u200b2.1 million litres of jet fuel per day last month, \u200bdata from \u2060the country’s petroleum products regulator showed.<\/div>\n
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However, the giant Dangote Petroleum Refinery, Nigeria’s sole domestic jet fuel producer, made no deliveries to the domestic market in March, the data showed.<\/div>\n
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At the \u2060same \u200btime, data from tanker-tracking firm Kpler showed Nigeria’s exports \u200bof clean petroleum products , gasoline, diesel, kerosene and jet fuel, more than doubling month on month in March.<\/div>\n
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Dangote did \u200bnot immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/div>\n
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–Reuters–<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":32117,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78,44],"class_list":["post-32116","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"Nigerian airlines will suspend all flight \u200boperations","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/32116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/32116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32118,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/32116\/revisions\/32118"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=32116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}