Scarcity of aviation fuel disrupts pilgrims'airlift in Saudi Arabia -

The scarcity of Jet A1 (aviation fuel) in the domestic market may have derailed the ongoing hajj operations from Saudi Arabia by Nigerian carriers.

The fuel, which has been scarce since the beginning of the week, affected the outbound flight of Skypower Express Airlines, a charter operator in the hajj exercise.

At least, about 265 pilgrims of the carrier were delayed at Saudi Arabia airport as the airline could not purchase fuel in Nigeria.

Muhammed Joji, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Skypower Express Airlines, confirmed this to our correspondent on phone.

According to him, attempts to purchase fuel in Lagos and Kano were futile, but explained that the airline eventually bought the product at very exorbitant rate, which enabled the airline to continue with the second leg of the exercise.

He explained that at least, 265 pilgrims of the Carrier were airlifted out of Saudi Arabia on Thursday night with a Boeing 777 aircraft leased from a local operator.

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He further explained that another batch of 265 pilgrims would be airlifted back to Nigeria on Saturday.

He lamented that the scarcity of the product in the local scene was affecting flight operations in the industry and called on the government to make the product available to airlines.

He said: “It is unfortunate that we don’t have fuel anywhere in Nigeria. We tried to get in Lagos, Kano and other airports, but we couldn’t get any. This unfortunately, affected the airlift of our pilgrims back to Nigeria from Saudi Arabia.

“But, the issue has been resolved as we were able to bring in 265 pilgrims on Friday morning with a B777 aircraft. The aircraft has since return to bring back the same number of our pilgrims.

“I think this is sabotage. How can a country have three refineries and can’t get aviation fuel to supply to its airlines. Apart from local operators, other foreign carriers operating into Nigeria are equally faced with the same challenge. It’s high time we settled this issue one and for all.”

A source in Saudi Arabia had confirmed that at least 275 pilgrims of Skypower Express Airlines were stranded at the King Abdulaziz International Airport, Jeddah without immediate solution to their challenge.

Some of the Pilgrims according to our source moved to Jeddah for return leg at 12am on Wednesday, which failed.

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha is the Aviation Correspondent at BusinessDay Media Limited, publishers of BusinessDay Newspapers. She is also the Deputy Editor, BusinessDay Weekender Magazine, the Saturday Weekend edition of BusinessDay. She holds a BSC in Mass Communication from the prestigious University of Nigeria, Nsukka and a Masters degree in Marketing at the University of Lagos. As the lead writer on the aviation desk, Ifeoma is responsible and in charge of the three weekly aviation and travel pages in BusinessDay and BDSunday. She also overseas and edits all pages of BusinessDay Saturday Weekender. She has written various investigative, features and news stories in aviation and business related issues and has been severally nominated for award in the category of Aviation Writer of the Year by the Nigeria Media Nite-Out awards; one of the Nigeria’s most prestigious media awards ceremonies. Ifeoma is a one-time winner of the prestigious Nigeria Media Merit Award under the 'Aviation Writer of the Year' Category. She is the 2025 Eloy Award winner under the Print Media Journalist category. She has undergone several journalism trainings by various prestigious organisations. Ifeoma is also a fellow of the Female Reporters Leadership Fellowship of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism.