 The airline operators of Nigeria, AON, has suspended his decision to withdraw his services across all airports in the country. Bellier Day, before the association planned to effect the withdrawal, it explained that it was suspending the decision in the interest of the national economy and security considerations. AON president, Abdul Munaf Serena, announced a suspension in a statement jointly signed by six members of the association. Earlier, the Ministry of Aviation had assured Nigerians that members of AON were reviewing their decision to withdraw services on Monday, May 9th. It confirmed that Ibon Air, Green Africa Airlines, Ibroke Air, Dana Air, and others said they would carry on with their normal flight shadows. We are now being joined by Dr. Abdul Munaf, East Unusa, President, airline operators of Nigeria and the Chairman, Azman Air. Glad to have you, Mr. Unusa. Okay, we also have Mr. Waleh Shadare, an aviation expert on the news tonight. Mr. Shadare, are you with us? Mr. Shadare, can you hear me? Good evening, Mr. Shadare. Okay, it looks like we're having a bit of... Mr. Shadare, good evening. Good evening. Can you hear me? Yes, I can. Welcome to the news. I can hear you loud and clear. Very good. Good evening to you. Dr. Unusa, are you with us? Yeah, I'm with you. All right, very good. Glad to have you, gentlemen. Thank you. Okay, so let's go straight into it. Have the issues which led to the planned flight suspensions been sorted out? Hello. I start with you, Dr. Unusa. The issues which led to the planned flight suspension, have they been addressed? Okay, can you hear me then, Mr. Shadare? It looks like Dr. Unusa is not... You see our efforts. Are you with me? Okay, go ahead. Hello. Go ahead. Okay. So due to the federal government intervening on the issue of the suspension of strike, so because of the interests of the masses and the interests of the federal government, would they call us and say that he want us to have a table meeting with them tomorrow and next tomorrow? So we decided to step down for our action. So that is why we decided to say that our members should go back for his normal operation pending our meeting with the federal government tomorrow and next tomorrow. Okay, so it's just few days before we know exactly... Yeah, the important is to give them 48 hours so we agree to give them 48 hours. Okay, well the astronomical rise in the price of aviation fuel, that's jet fuel A1 from 190 Naira to 700 Naira per liter is disturbing and disheartening. The issue has been persistent, especially as well as unavailability. How can a complete resolution be achieved? Unisa, I'm still with you. Dr. Unisa, I'm still with you. Okay, you see the aviation fuel like how you said that we used to buy it 190 now ready to 700 Naira, which is very, very difficult to continue of raising on that one. Because if you see that if we can continue by aviation point at 700 Naira, we have to raise our ticket fare to 120 which is too high considering the masses. Even the 50,000, 60, 70 we are selling some of the people cannot afford to make that money. So that is why we say that we have to bring the attention of the federal government so that it will come to this our business to see how we are going to continue on this business. If not, everybody will stop and keep this. We cannot do it. Considering that the dollar, we are buying the dollar was 300, 360. Now the dollar is getting to 600 Naira. You see the aviation business, even the carpet of the aircraft, we are not doing it in Nigeria. We buy it abroad. Every soon we buy it by dollar. 90% of the purchase for the aircraft is by dollar. So all this one caused this problem, the aviation and the dollar. No, Dr. Walesha Dara, you are an aviation expert. Can you come in and tell us how you are analyzing all of this? How are you taking all of this in and what's your assessment of what's going on? Thank you very much. We know that if we get to this level that the airlines, we decide to take the action that they plan to take. If we remember closely, some few months ago, aviation's work rose from almost 250 Naira per liter to 500 and 600 Naira per liter. And the airline operators had the meeting and decided to adjust fare to 50,000 Naira for one week. And that was the base fare, that was the least fare. And there were a lot of them outcry against the airline operators. But if you look at it holistically, you'll find out that the airlines are going through some of the difficult times. Aviation for takes about 40, 45% of the revenue of airlines. Even at 50%, it becomes very, very difficult for them to remain afloat. What are they going to do? The best thing for them to do, which they did was to raise that fare to 50,000 Naira. But if you look at the situation very well, you'll find out that how many people, like the AOM president said, how many people can really afford 50,000 Naira per liter in this economy? I do not know how the airlines are going to survive because if they try to adjust this fare more, they have competitors in Jibo, they have competitors in Mazemaza, they have competitors in Uinibo. And these competitors are the road transporters. A lot of people who take road transportation, even with the attendant security on our roads. I do not know how we're going to do it. Aviation for has been designated a long time ago, and the oil marketers will tell you that they are selling to the airlines at the rate at which they bought. Well, at least I've said that an efficient review of the field subsidy system will bring down the prices. Do you agree? If we had the refinery, it would have probably, perhaps, brought down the price of aviation fuel. But we do not have that. So the pressure is so much on the airline operators. If you look at it, the Russian-Ukrainian world has also contributed largely to this. But honestly, I don't know where we go from here. The operators are really, really crying. It is very, very difficult for them to operate. And if nothing is done, we pray the airlines will not start cutting corners. If they start cutting corners, we all know what is going to happen. Is it a disaster waiting to happen? If you look at it, the airlines are finding it very, very difficult to even sell dollar. They cannot even get dollars to do their operation. And airline operation or airline business anywhere in the world is dollarized. So where do we go from here? Where do we go from here? Let me return to Dr. Unisa. Dr. Unisa. Yeah. Yeah, well, the pipeline bridging the supply of fuel from Ejibu to the MMA has not been repaired by the NNPC since 1992. That's 30 years after it got ruptured. What is the government saying in this regard? Or is it part of what you're going to discuss with them within this 48 hours? No. That's why it's not a part we are going to discuss with them. Because that's, you see, what we want out is immediate, the immediate supply of the aviation for it. You see, the aviation business is not like other business. I am an oil company. So I know that this aviation foil, NNPC is the major importer of this aviation foil. And NNPC is the one who is important this aviation foil. The majority of this aviation foil is NNPC imported it. And it is distributed it to the market. Dr. Unisa. The request from such allocation, this is our allocation. We fit them together with them. We spend about seven days with our members. With our marketers, with the NNPC people, that this is our daily demand. This is our weekly demand. This is our monthly demand. They agree that they are going to give us but that one didn't work. The issue of this pie, we are saying that that one, we cannot say that we are talking of that one. We need the immediate supply. Immediate supply at what cost? The man who is the expert aviation man who is saying is saying the truth because the aviation business is not like other business. It's not like other business. We cannot like what he said that if they didn't do anything, we can make a corner. No, no, no, no, no. We cannot make a corner. What we want is to see that we bring the attention of the concerned authority to see how we are going to resolve this issue. Instead of make a corner, we can just pack our aircraft if we cannot do it. Thank you. Well, thank you. That's perhaps a good place to leave it until we hear your through with your meeting with the government within the time frame of 48 hours and then air travelers will be able to tell if they can still fly or not. Thank you so much, Dr. Abdul Munaf. It's you, Nisa. You're the president airline operators of Nigeria and chairman Azman Air. Thank you for your time and Mr. Wale Shadari, an aviation expert. Thank you, gentlemen, for your time tonight. Mr. Wale, good evening, Alaji. Dr. Wale, very much. I pray that this problem will be resolved as quickly as possible by the way that is what we're afraid. We don't want this.