Barrister Festus Keyamo,Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development.

The Nigerian domestic aviation sector currently faces a profound and protracted crisis driven primarily by the escalating cost of Jet A1 fuel, which has remained between ₦1,650 and ₦2,037 per litre.

This single factor has pushed fuel to nearly half of total airline operating expenses and has forced domestic carriers to raise fares to levels that many Nigerians can no longer afford.

Rather than to frontally tackle this urgent challenge, the Federal Government has already given away ₦60 billion in invoice discounts to airlines with no measurable benefit to the industry or the travelling public.

The defects are palpable!Jet A1 prices have remained unchanged. Airline debts have not reduced. Neither have we seen passengers enjoy  cheaper fares. The cargo logistics,tourism and hospitality sectors have not experienced a growth.

The aviation ecosystem — airlines, agencies, concessionaires, ground handlers — received no structural relief from that hollow ₦60 billion largesse.

The Aviation Safety Roundtable Initiative (ASRTI/ ART) has therefore recommended a more effective and fiscally responsible alternative.

The proposal seeks to focus exclusively on domestic operators. This is achievable through the allocation of crude oil directly to local refiners in a Fuel‑for‑Stability Programme which eliminates the ₦60 billion waste, reduces the government’s cost exposure, and creates a stable fuel‑pricing structure that immediately transforms the economics of the sector.

Whether the final feasible fuel price is ₦300 or slightly above is not the issue.The grand strategy is to emplace a stable, predictable supply of crude to local refiners in order to dramatically lower operating costs, enable lower fares, higher passenger traffic, more profitable airlines, stronger aviation agencies, and a healthier fiscally backed ecosystem.

Lower air fares are not restricted to consumer benefits, they are catalysts for market expansion, passenger traffic growth, higher load factors and the economies of scale that make the business of commercial aviation sustainable.

A nation of over 220 million people should not continually operate an aviation market accessible only to a narrow segment of its population.

Reduced airfares will result in a natural expansion of the market and sustainable sectoral growth.

This approach is pragmatic and not theoretical. India achieved some of the lowest domestic fares in the world and explosive traffic growth by stabilizing fuel supply and prioritizing structural reforms.

Turkey, Indonesia, and Brazil also transformed their aviation sectors by focusing on affordability, volume growth, and ecosystem‑wide efficiency — not piecemeal interventions that deliver no lasting value.

While we have on many occasions lauded the efforts of the present administration to restore global aircraft lessors’ confidence in Nigeria’s aviation sector including the bold aim at localizing aircraft maintenance and availability, we still maintained that government has to be deliberate in its policies to grow the aviation sector in order to catalyse national economic growth.

Deliberate market-shaping policy reforms will result in making flying a mass- market activity in Nigeria and enhance its global competitiveness.

Nigeria’s overall national interest and economic survival should supersede other considerations by the political leadership.

Nigeria must learn from the examples of the United States, Latin America and Europe. Our focus should be on ecosystem transformation, not isolated activities that bring doubtful benefits.

If adopted, the ART model costs the government less and delivers industry‑wide recovery, affordability, and sustainable growth.