Nearly 50 percent of domestic airlines? flight operations have either been delayed or cancelled in the last 12 months as aircraft scarcity and airlines? schedules continue to disrupt flights.

Airlines have been hard hit by a series of challenges ranging from aircraft scarcity to poor flight scheduling. Other challenges are: unavailability of forex for spare parts and maintenance, consistent bird strikes, weather, restrictions caused by sunset airports, delays from customs in clearing of safety critical spare parts, amongst others. These issues have continued to cause delays and cancellations, leaving several passengers stranded.

In Nigeria?s domestic aviation landscape, a total of 70,543 flights took to the skies in 2024. However, the journey wasn?t always smooth-sailing, with 47.1 percent of flights experiencing delays (33,235 out of 70,543) and 1.7 percent seeing cancellations (1,189 out of 70,543), the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, (NCAA) data show.

Olumide Ohunayo, industry analyst and director of research at Zenith Travels, told BusinessDay that the data on flight cancellations and delays by the NCAA have been able to expose the level of flight disruptions in the country.

?Flight delays have continued to increase because most of the schedules that the airlines had are still there while the aircraft are reducing in number. This means they need to adjust their schedules. In not adjusting their schedules, they are made to merge flights, thereby delaying flight operations,? Ohunayo said.

He also mentioned that commercial agreements among the airlines have failed to start.

?We have seen domestic airlines launch codeshare but none has materialised. Till today, we are yet to see any of the airlines pull their passengers on another airline?s flight. Till today, the victims of the demise of Dana Air have not been refunded. They have also not been able to use the ticket on another airline,? he said.

Ohunayo suggested that if the NCAA can release data weekly or monthly and not have to wait till the end of the year, this will help to address the causes of the delays and put the airlines on their toes.

BusinessDay had reported that the high cost of spare parts and maintenance forced several airlines in Nigeria to park their planes across various airports last year, thereby causing scarcity of aircraft.

BusinessDay learnt that foreign exchange scarcity also forced some airlines to take spare parts from one grounded plane to fix others and keep them flying.

Limited airplanes have forced airlines to cancel and delay flights, reduce frequencies or suspend operations in and out of second-tier routes, paying more attention to first-tier or frequently used routes to maximise economic benefits.

Data obtained by BusinessDay from the NCAA last year showed that 13 domestic airlines operating in Nigeria operate a total of 91 aircraft. This data includes aircraft that have gone on maintenance.

Airlines, delays and cancellations

In 2024, Air Peace, one of the largest players, accounted for 22.9 percent of all delayed flights (7,619 out of 33,235) and 28 percent of all cancellations (333 out of 1,189). Arik Air followed closely, with 15.1 percent of all delayed flights (5,027 out of 33,235) and 18.1 percent of all cancellations (215 out of 1,189).

United Nigeria had 13.7 percent of all delayed flights (4,559 out of 33,235) and 10.5 percent of all cancellations (125 out of 1,189). Max Air struggled with delays, accounting for 8.9 percent of all delayed flights (2,961 out of 33,235) and 4.9 percent of all cancellations (58 out of 1,189).

Ibom Air and Green Africa also experienced significant delays, with 8.2 percent (2,739 out of 33,235) and 4.5 percent (1,499 out of 33,235) of total delays, and 11.8 percent (140 out of 1,189) and 7.5 percent (89 out of 1,189) of total cancellations, respectively.

Other notable airlines include: ValueJet, with 4.3 percent of total delays (1,413 out of 33,235) and 2.9 percent of total cancellations (35 out of 1,189); Rano Air, with 5.1 percent of total delays (1,699 out of 33,235) and three percent of total cancellations (36 out of 1,189);

Aero Contractors had 5.7 percent of total delays (1,882 out of 33,235) and 4.6 percent of total cancellations (55 out of 1,189); Overland had six percent of total delays (1,978 out of 33,235) and 6.4 percent of total cancellations (76 out of 1,189); NG Eagle had 1.8 percent of total delays (600 out of 33,235) and 1.6 percent of total cancellations (19 out of 1,189); Xejet had 0.4 percent of total delays (146 out of 33,235) and 0.1 percent of total cancellations (one out of 1,189); Dana had three percent of total delays (999 out of 33,235) and 0.6 percent of total cancellations (seven out of 1,189).

On the other end of the spectrum, airlines like Azman Air and Umza Airlines had relatively fewer flights and fewer delays. Azman Air operated 145 flights, with 76 delays (0.23 percent of total delays) and no cancellations. Umza Airlines operated 52 flights, with 38 delays (0.11 percent of total delays) and no cancellations.

John Ojikutu, industry expert and CEO of Centurion Aviation Security and Safety Consult, told BusinessDay that while there may be issues such as bird strikes and airport infrastructures causing flight delays, airlines have also failed to keep to their flight schedules.

He argued that the cost of airfares have kept several passengers away from air travel while airlines battle with low load factors which they try to mitigate by merging flights, thereby delaying and keeping passengers stranded.

?If you don?t have sufficient load factor for your flight, it makes no economic sense to run it at an operational loss. That is why the airlines should begin using low capacity aircraft for quick turnaround time. Low capacity of 50/80 seats and lower operating cost is what the airlines need now. Having low load factor is not economically viable for any of the airlines with the types of aircraft they are operating,? Ojikutu said.

However, Air Peace had in a statement explained that its repeated flight delays and cancellations were dictated by safety considerations. (BusinessDay)

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