Air travellers across the country will have to seek alternative means of transportation, as the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, is currently denying petroleum marketers access to airports over incremental tariffs.
Vanguard gathered that the access restriction started yesterday at the Abuja airport and plans are underway to extend it to other airports managed by FAAN.
Nigeria has 32 airports, 26 of which are operated by FAAN, five of which are international airports.
Currently the ramp or parking pad in Abuja airport is now congested, as most airlines have more than two aircraft on ground.
Findings showed that the airport authority is currently restricting access to all fuel marketers, reason being that it had instituted a 100 per cent increment in apron pass charges which the marketers are required to pay urgently.
At the moment, no petroleum marketer is allowed into the apron.
A source within the sector told Vanguard that the marketers were not informed of any tariff review before now.
But when Vanguard contacted FAAN's Acting General Manager, Corporate Affairs, Faithful Hope-Ivbaze, she stated that the marketers were fully aware of the tariff review, insisting that they would not be allowed to operate with expired apron passes.
She noted that the tariff was never increased by 100 per cent as claimed by the marketers, adding that it was raised by only 25 per cent, following the current dynamics in the country's economy.
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In her words: "The oil marketers apron pass has expired. This pass is given to them yearly and they ought to have renewed it for the year before now.
"The aviation industry is highly regulated, and safety and security remain our utmost priority. Since their apron pass has expired, they were given a deadline to renew it and get a new one.
"The airport must run, and the oil that runs the airport is revenue, bearing in mind that the industry is capital intensive. If there is an increase, we must inform everyone within the chain.
"We reviewed the charges and the marketers were duly informed. The industry is ours and we carry everybody along when going through any process. They are supposed to renew their pass, even before it expires.
"The charge was raised from N150,000 to N200,000, which is not up to 100 per cent as claimed."
However, an Aviation analyst, Olumide Ohunayo, told Vanguard that the development would greatly impact airlines' operations today (yesterday).
He said: "This will bring massive losses to the airlines who cannot operate their scheduled operations and the development is cascading to other routes. There are also other chattered operations which have been impacted by this development.
"From all indications, the development is going to continue throughout the day and possibly linger till the weekend, if nothing is done to address it.
"Also, we understand that it is not just oil marketers whose apron pass charge was increased, they also increased that of ground handlers and other organisations that operate in the airports. They started the action with the petroleum marketers. In the coming days, others will follow."
