The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has released the list of Nigerian domestic Airlines that accounted for the highest number of domestic flight delays between January and March 2023.
According to the report released weekend and sighted by PORTS & BORDERS, NCAA said of the 18,288 domestic flights in the first quarter 2023; 10,128 (representing 55.4 per cent) were delayed while 284 (representing 1.55 per cent) were cancelled.
The report listed 11 airlines that operated on the domestic route during the first quarter of 2023 — Aero Contractors, Arik Air, Azman Air, Dana Air, Air Peace, Max Air, Ibom Air, United Nigeria Airlines, Green Africa, Value Jet and Overland Airways.
The report further disclosed that Air Peace had the highest number of cancelled flights in the first quarter of 2023 with 63 flights, followed by Max Air with 56.
Breaking down the number of flights operated by the airlines under review, Air Peace operated 6,521 flights out of which 3,754 flights were delayed, representing 57 per cent.
Max Air recorded 1,565 flights, with 1,013 flights delayed, Arik Air had 1,619 flights, with 926 delayed flights.
United Nigeria Airlines had 910 flight delays out of the 1,243 flights recorded.
Ibom Air, per the report, operated 2,312 flights with 746 delayed flights, while Aero Contractors recorded 1,123 flights with delayed flights.
Overland Airways operated 719 flights, with 605 flights delayed; Dana Air recorded 711 flights and delayed 474, while Green Africa operated 1,182 flights, with 443 delays.
While Azman Air airlifted passengers 527 times with 385 delays, Value Jet operated 766 flights with 248 delays.
Similarly, the NCAA noted 11 domestic airlines operating in the country had 284 flight cancellations in the first quarter of the year.
Other airlines with cancelled flights included Arik, 43; Aero Contractors, 40; Azman Air, 20; Green Africa, 16; Overland, 15; Value Jet, 15; Ibom Air, 9; Dana Air, 5; and United Airlines, 2.
The NCAA further mentioned that the Nigerian aviation market recorded 2,791,591 passengers, adding that passenger traffic indicated 1.40 million as outbound passengers, while 1.39 million were inbound air travellers.
According to the report, “The breakdown shows that while inbound passenger traffic of 375,700 was recorded, outbound traffic was 495,076 on the international routes.
“In the first quarter, 25 foreign airlines operated 3,073 flights on the international routes, while 11 domestic airlines operated 182,88 flights on domestic routes.”
