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Arik Air, has announced plans to suspend flight operations today, Saturday, May 2, due to the lingering aviation fuel scarcity in the country.
The Managing Director, Arik Air, Mr Chris Ndulue disclosed this on Friday at the airline corporate headquarters while addressing aviation reporters.
According to him, the airline has been operating 20% of its daily flights schedule due to scarcity of aviation fuel, particularly in Lagos, its major hub. The airline operates about 120 flights on its domestic routes daily.
His words:“This aviation fuel scarcity started last week Thursday. And since then, we have had to scale down our operations due to non-availability of fuel. We have had to cancel and reschedule flights. We couldn’t depart for Dubai yesterday due to this scarcity. It is becoming impossible to continue. We will suspend flights operation from tomorrow (Saturday), until when aviation fuel becomes available.”
Continuing, he said: “ It is the contingency arrangement for fuel during this scarcity that has taken us this far . We may not be able to continue. We have been losing revenue by cancelling flights and not operating at full capacity. We require about 500,000 to 800,000 litres of fuel daily to power both our domestic and international routes. Our international flights have had to go to Ghana, sometimes Cotonou and even Togo to get fuel before proceeding to London or United States.”