NCAA: Airline operators recorded 1,320 cancelled flights, 38,061 delays in 2024

The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) says both international and domestic airline operators recorded 1,320 cancelled flights and 38,061  delays in 2024.

In an executive summary on international and domestic flight operations for 2024 released by the NCAA, domestic airlines, with 15 operators, recorded 33,235 delayed flights, while international airlines, with 30 operators, had 4,426 delays.

Regarding cancellations, international airlines recorded 131 canceled flights, while domestic airlines had 1,189 cancellations.

Overall, the aviation authority said 70,543 flights were operated in domestic space, while 14,359 flights were recorded in the international sector in 2024.

DELTA AIRLINE, VALUE JET LEAD IN INTERNATIONAL FLIGHT DELAYS

In the document, the NCAA said among the 30 airlines that operated the international space, Delta Airline, Value Jet, and Uganda Air recorded the highest number of delays.

The report said Value Jet (100 percent) delayed all its four flights, Delta Airline (60 percent) delayed 235 out of 390 operations and cancelled nine flights.

More so, Uganda Air recorded 96 delayed flights (57 percent) out of 168 operated in the year under review.

On the contrary, Virgin Atlantic had the least number of delays in international flights, with the airline recording 26 delays out of 362 operations, representing 8 percent and just one cancelled flight.

Other airlines with low records are United Airline with 18 delayed flights out of 171 operations (11 percent) and Saudi Air with 19 delays representing 16 percent of 121 operations. 

AIR PEACE, UNITED NIGERIA TOP LIST OF DELAYED DOMESTIC FLIGHTS 

According to the NCAA, Air Peace had the highest number of flight delays in 2024.

The airline recorded 7,619 delayed flights out of 15,413 operations in the year.

Next on the list is United Airlines, with 4,559 delayed flights out of 7,794 operations.

Arik Air clinched third place with 5,027 as the total number of delayed flights out of 10,699 flights operated.

In terms of cancelled flights, the three flights with the highest records in 2024 were Air Peace (333), Arik Air  (215), and Ibom Air  (140).

On January 31, 2024, Festus Keyamo, minister of aviation and aerospace development, said the ministry would start publishing delayed or cancelled flights by domestic airlines every week.

However,  the ministry did not implement the policy.

On December 24, the NCAA  said it sanctioned five airlines, comprising two international and three domestic operators, for violating Part 19 of NCAA Regulations of 2023.

The NCAA said the violations include failure to refund passengers within the stipulated time frame, non-responsiveness to authority’s directives, incidents of missing and manhandled luggage, short-landed baggage, and issues relating to flight delays and cancellations.