Domestic airlines record 10,128 delays, 284 cancellations — NCAA 

By Seun Ibiyemi

Data emanating from the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and currently in public domain shows that with the 3,074 International flights and 18,288 domestic flights operating within Nigeria, delays and cancellations tops with domestic airlines having 10,128 delays and 284 cancellations.

This is just as international airlines had a total of 1,193 delays and 24 cancellations from January to March (the first quarter) of 2023.

Of airlines operating within Nigeria, Overland Airways with 91 per cent, United Nigeria Airlines has 81 per cent, Azman 73 per cent, Dana 72 per cent, Max Air 68 per cent, Aero Contractors 68 per cent, Air Peace 66 per cent, Arik 59 per cent, had bad records of flight delays.

Air Peace recorded 1,602 delayed flights out of 2,421 flights operated within the time period under review amounting to 66 per cent of its flights being delayed while Aero Contractors which operated 465 flights had 314 flights delayed.

Arik Air operated 804 flights with 473 delays; Azman operated 267 flights and recorded 195 flight delays; Dana Air operated 421 flights had 303 delays; Overland operated 281 flights had 257 delays; Max Air had 653 flights recorded 445 delays; Ibom Air had 850 flights and recorded 295.

While Green Africa operated 533 flights, it recorded 193 flight delays, Value Jet had 65 flight delays out of 297 flights operated.

Over all, 7, 518 flights were operated by all Nigerian scheduled airlines recording 4,561 flight delays.

For international operators within the continent, Egypt Air had 68 per cent of its flights delayed, while Cronos had 60 per cent.

South African Airways at 22 per cent, Kenya Airways had 57 per cent, Air Peace 55 per cent, Air Code d’Ivoire 54 per cent, RwandAir 51 per cent, British Airways 47 per cent, Ethiopian Airlines 43 per cent, Turkish Airlines, 43 per cent, Royal Air Maroc 32 per cent.

Africa World Air with  314 flights had 97 delayed flights making up 31 per cent of the total number of flight delays among international airlines to the country. AWA had no flight cancellations while TAAG Angola also had 31 per cent. From Asia, America, the middle East and Europe, Saudi Air had a poor number of flight delays amounting to 74 per cent, United States United Airlines has the least flight delays at 3 per cent followed by Lufthansa Airlines, Middle East Airlines at 13 per cent; Virgin Atlantic Airways at 14 per cent, Air France and Delta at 19 per cent, Qatar Airways at 28 per cent, making them the most two reliable airlines in terms of airlines that have fewer delays.

International airlines recorded 495, 076 outbound passengers, 375,700 inbound passengers, while domestic airlines recorded a total of 1,391,560 inbound and 1,400,031 outbound passengers.