Tensions are mounting at the Muritala Mohammed Airport Lagos Saturday morning as passengers are charging at airline officials over delay in their flights.
Already the situation is becoming rowdy with angry and anxious passengers challenge officials who appeared to have no direct answers to questions over the exact time for take-off.
NPO Reports Correspondent report that Air Peace passengers for Abuja, Port Harcourt and Enugu who were slated for 6:30am flights could not take off at the scheduled times.
At 6:30am, a female official of the airline came to address the passengers that their flight would be delayed for one hour.
Most passengers did not express anger at the first delay.
However at 7:40am, another official who identified himself as Samuel Ikhalo came to plead for another one hour.
The announcement by Ikhalo, who said he is a Duty Manager caused uproar as most passengers got off their seats to challenge him demanding what exactly was the delay about.
Ikhalo attributed the delay to scarcity in aviation fuel explaining that the supplier for the aviation fuel which the airline relied upon later said they had run out of stock.
Some of the passengers told the Duty Manager not to come back with any other excuse accusing the airline of still selling tickets when it knew it had not fuel to power its aircraft.
NPO Reports gathered that this is the situation in many other airports as the aviation fuel scarcity bites harder.
The development is also coming days after the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, met with a delegation from the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources, oil marketers, and airline operators, among others.
The meeting came under the heels of a threat by airline operators to shut down operations due to the astronomical increase in the price of Jet A1 fuel, which is pegged at about 300 per cent.
The operators, in a letter dated April 14, 2026, and addressed to the Executive Secretary of the Major Energies Marketers Association of Nigeria, Clement Isong, said the cost of Jet A1 had surged from ₦900 per litre as of February 28 to ₦3,300 per litre—an increase of over 300 percent within weeks.
This was considered by the group as “artificial” and far above global trends,.
They noted that international crude oil prices had risen by only about 30 percent within the same period.
According to the operators, airlines have absorbed the rising costs for more than four weeks out of “patriotism and in the spirit of service to the nation,” but warned that the situation is no longer sustainable.
“Airline revenues are insufficient to cover the cost of fuel alone,” the letter stated, adding that continued operations are becoming increasingly unviable.” They stated.
The operators further accused fuel marketers of “decimating the aviation industry,” warning that the situation poses wider risks to Nigeria’s economy, safety, and national security.
They disclosed that the impact of the price surge is already being felt across the sector, revealing that one airline has grounded all operations since March 13, 2026, due to the rising fuel cost. It warned that more carriers could follow if urgent action is not taken.
“Aviation remains a sector of strategic national importance,” the letter added, cautioning that the current pricing regime is “unhealthy and detrimental to national wellbeing.”
More details later…