Nigeria: FG Says Airlines Agreeing to Constrict Supply is Illegal

Babatunde Irukera, Executive Vice Chairman and CEO, Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, FCCPC, in an interview with ARISE News, speaks against the aviation sector’s collusion to constrain supply in a bid to protest the hike in jet fuel which is illegal.

Recall that the Airlines Operators of Nigeria (AON) notified the Federal Government and the general public of its plan to shut down all scheduled services indefinitely effective next Monday, May 9, over unbearable cost of aviation fuel that currently sells at N700 per litre.

President of the AON, Abdulmunaf Yunusa, in an endorsed circular noted that government’s earlier intervention in the aviation fuel crisis had failed to forestall imminent shutdown, with Jet-A1 scaling the N500/litre benchmark to N700.

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Yunusa added that no airline could survive with the astronomical increase in aviation fuel and high cost of operations, yet continue to offer subsidised airfares to the travelling public.

In light of the aforementioned, Executive Vice Chairman and CEO, Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, FCCPC,
Babatunde Irukera, while sympathetic on the plight of the sector, says it’s a violation of competition laws for businesses to come together and agree to Constrict supply, irrespective of circumstance and that is what the FCCPC will check.

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