Dakar airport has been hit by a shortage of kerosene due to “unfavourable international conditions” and its operator is calling on airlines landing there to ensure their own fuel supply for return flights.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine at the end of February, oil prices have soared on world markets, fuelling a sharp rise in fuel prices in many countries.
The “kerosene supply system” is “severely disrupted” because of “unfavorable international conditions” combined with “unprecedented tensions on the prices of certain raw materials,” said a statement from the Blaise-Diagne International Airport in Dakar (AIBD) issued on Monday night.
The handling company of aviation fuels (SMCady), owned by several foreign oil groups, indicates that “the refueling operations of aircraft can no longer continue from Wednesday, April 20, 2022” at midday, “for a temporary period of two weeks.
Faced with this situation, the AIBD, whose operation has been entrusted by the Senegalese state to two Turkish companies, Limak and Summa, calls on airlines to “take the necessary measures (…) to ensure the fuel autonomy of return flights.
The national airline Air Senegal was keen to reassure its customers on Tuesday. It announced in a statement the “normal conduct of its usual flight program with the same schedules”, despite the shortage of kerosene.
According to the local press, the State has taken measures to ensure that priority in the supply is given to Air Senegal and the army.
“Following this situation, our Dakar-Paris flights are making a stopover in Las Palmas”, in the Canary Islands, for refueling, an Air France spokesman in Paris said Tuesday.
Several motorists said they had difficulty finding diesel fuel in Dakar over the weekend (Monday was a holiday), and sometimes had to go through several pumps before being able to fill up.