Expert on the Air Force aviation fuel

An aviation expert, Group Captain John Ojikutu (rtd) told our correspondent on the phone that, using about 56,000 litres of aviation fuel per day to fuel fighter aircraft isn’t too much.

He said the minimum number of aircraft the Airforce could deploy per operation is two and could even be up to four aircraft per operation.

He said the distance from the operational base to the targeted territories of insurgents would also impact on the quantity of aviation fuel to be used.

According to Ojikutu, the Airforce sometimes deploys Alpha Jets, which consume much more fuel than normal aircraft because of its speed and capabilities.

“The forward operational aircraft are likely to be close support/combat helicopters and possibly the A-jet; any of these would be paired for any sortie (operation). There could be as much as four or more sorties per day; imagine an aircraft consuming 3000 to 5000 litres per sortie; that gives you between 12,000 to 20,000 per aircraft or 36,000 to 40,000 for four sorties. This could be the minimum and could be more if the sorties are more than four for paired aircraft.

“Note, each sortie could be about 40 minutes to an hour per aircraft compared to B737 that consumes 20,000 to 25,000 litres on an hour flight,” he said.

Daily gathered that the aviation fuel costs N265 per litre.