The Managing Director of Med-View Airline, Muneer Bankole, on Tuesday complained about the high cost of aviation fuel and urged the Federal Government to intervene.
Bankole, who made the appeal in an interview with aviation correspondents in Lagos, said the high cost of aviation of fuel was a big challenge to domestic airlines.
“It is bad that airline operators pay $1.20 (about N174) for a litre of the aviation fuel, in a country that produces oil. This price translates to 40 per cent of our total operational costs,” he said.
Bankole urged the government to arrange a meeting between the major oil marketers and airline operators on how best to reduce the costs.
He called on the Federal Government to remove middlemen from the aviation fuel business and allow operators to buy it directly from the major marketers.
Bankole identified double charges being paid to service providers at the airports as another challenge facing airline operators.
He expressed appreciation to the government for granting waivers to domestic airline operators on the importation of commercial aircraft and spare parts.
“Many aircraft would have stopped flying if not for the waivers,” he said.
Bankole recalled that since November 2012, when it started operation, Med-View had transported 400,000 passengers.
He said that the Federal Government had designated the airline as the flag carrier on the Abuja -Dubai, Lagos-Dubai and Kano-Jeddah routes.
Others routes operated by Med-View Airline are Abuja -Jeddah, Lagos – Accra, Lagos-Dakar, Enugu-Singapore, Lagos – Libreville and Nigeria– Israel.