Flight reliability remained a major challenge in Nigeria’s domestic aviation market in August, with airlines delaying 4,765 of 7,961 scheduled operations, representing 59.9 percent of all flights operated during the month.
The latest August 2026 Summary of Domestic Airline Flight Disruption Operations released by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) showed that 36 flights were also cancelled across the 15 airlines covered by the regulator.
United Nigeria Airlines recorded the highest delay rate among the airlines that operated during the period, with 943 of its 1,231 flights delayed, representing 76.6 percent of its operations.
The airline also recorded the highest number of cancellations in August, with eight flights cancelled.
Air Peace recorded the largest absolute number of delayed flights, with 1,330 delays out of 1,864 operations, translating to a 71.4 percent delay rate.
Enugu Air recorded 582 delayed flights from 878 operations, representing 66.3 percent, while ValueJet recorded 435 delays from 767 flights.
Aero had 246 delayed flights from 469 operations, while Ibom Air recorded 254 delays from 560 flights.
Max Air recorded 204 delays from 336 operations, while Rano Air had 216 delays from 503 flights. Arik Air recorded 188 delays from 301 operations.
At the lower end of the disruption table, Umza Air recorded 52 delayed flights out of 403 operations, giving it a delay rate of about 12.9 percent, the lowest among the airlines covered by the NCAA data. It recorded no cancellations during the month.
The NCAA breakdown showed that the majority of delayed flights were held up for between 16 minutes and one hour, with 2,801 flights falling into that category.
Another 1,322 flights experienced delays of between one and two hours, while 407 flights were delayed for between two and three hours.
A further 235 flights suffered delays of three hours or more, accounting for the most severe category of disruption.
Air Peace accounted for 108 of the delays lasting three hours or more, followed by Enugu Air with 46 and United Nigeria Airlines with 41.
NCAA orders airlines to match schedules with capacity
The disruption figures also come against a regulatory directive aimed at addressing schedule integrity in the domestic aviation market.
Chris Najomo, director-general of the NCAA, on September 10 directed airlines to ensure that their published flight schedules accurately reflected the aircraft and crew available to operate them.
The directive places greater emphasis on airlines matching their commercial schedules with operational resources, a factor that can affect the ability of carriers to maintain planned departure times when aircraft or crew availability changes.
On cancellations, Air Peace recorded seven, placing it behind United Nigeria Airlines, while Enugu Air recorded four cancellations during August.
With 4,765 of 7,961 domestic flights delayed, the August figures put schedule reliability firmly among the operational issues facing Nigeria’s domestic aviation sector as airlines contend with the need to maintain capacity while meeting published schedules.
