The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, says President Bola Tinubu has approved a 30 per cent reduction on debts owed by domestic airlines to aviation agencies.

Under the arrangement, local carriers will be required to pay only 70 per cent of their outstanding obligations to federal aviation bodies.

Keyamo disclosed the decision on Thursday after receiving a communication from the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila. The policy was approved by President Bola Tinubu.

“This evening, Mr. president has definitely approved a 30 percent discount,” the minister told journalists on Thursday night.

The move follows the minister’s disclosure about 24 hours earlier that the federal government was weighing debt relief for domestic airlines as part of efforts to ease the pressure of rising aviation fuel costs.

Although the total liabilities owed by airline operators to aviation agencies have not been made public, Keyamo said the debts cover parking charges payable to the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, navigational fees owed to the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, among other outstanding charges.

On April 14, the Airline Operators of Nigeria threatened to suspend operations from April 20 over the rising cost of Jet A1 fuel.

The operators said aviation fuel prices had jumped from about N900 per litre on February 28 to N3,300 per litre, a surge of over 300 percent.

However, AON later announced a temporary suspension of the planned shutdown after appeals from the minister.

The chairman of Air Peace, Allen Onyema, who had earlier decried the aviation crisis driven largely by the sharp rise in Jet A1 prices, has called for the prosecution of marketers of the product.

“The truth is that the marketers must be brought to book to explain how they got about the 300 percent increase,” he stated.

“Even Dangote is surprised, because what he is selling to us still remains the cheapest, and some of them lift from there. So why the astronomical rise?”

Onyema said airlines are facing severe financial pressure, adding that operators have been forced to rely on borrowing to finance fuel purchases while struggling to sustain critical operations such as safety and maintenance.

He also appealed to President Bola Tinubu to consider a total waiver of outstanding debts owed by airlines, as well as a temporary suspension of repayments until stability returns to the Strait of Hormuz region.