Planned Aviation Shutdown: Reps Cancel Emergency Session, Leadership To Meet Airline Operators Again
The House of Representatives has cancelled the planned plenary session scheduled for Monday.
Yahaya Danzaria, the Clerk of the House, in a statement on Sunday, said the planned session was cancelled because of “near-resolution of some of the major critical issues in the Aviation Industry that necessitated the original notice.”
He said the leadership of the House will meet with relevant persons in the sector.
On Saturday, Mr Danzaria had announced the emergency session without stating the reason for it.
Threat of shutdown by operators
Airline operators had on Friday in a letter addressed to the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, issued a notice that they would suspend all local operations over fuel cost.
In reaction to the letter, Mr Sirika pleaded with Nigerian airlines to suspend the planned shutdown of operations.
Hours after the notice, five airlines separately pulled out of the plan and said they will continue their operations. The airlines are Ibom Air, Arik, Air Peace, Aero Contractors and Dana.
On Sunday, AON said all airlines have suspended the plan and operations will no longer be halted.
Previous intervention
It would be recalled that in March, the House of Representatives had brokered an agreement between airline operators, aviation fuel marketers and aviation authorities.
Nnaji Nnolim, the Chairman of the House Committee on Aviation, had moved a motion, urging the House to intervene to avoid a crisis in the sector.
The meeting, chaired by the Deputy Speaker, Idris Wase (APC, Plateau), with Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) and the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria reached an agreement to avert the shutdown.
The two unions agreed to peg the price of Aviation Turbine Kerosene, also known as Jet A1 fuel, at N500 per litre from N630, which was the price at the time.
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