Ibom Air and United Nigeria airlines were local airlines recording the most missing and delayed luggage in year 2024, a new report has shown.

On international route, Air France, KLM and Egypt Air had the most missing and delayed luggage in year 2024 amongst international airlines operating in Nigeria.

This was contained in an executive summary on International and Domestic Flight Operations 2024, recently released by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).

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Not less than 47,923 baggage belonging to air passengers were either missing or delayed on arrival among local and international airlines across the country’s airports in 2024.

For local airlines, Ibom Air had the highest number of delayed/missing luggage in 2024 with 130, while United Nigeria had 86 within the period.

Others were Air Peace with 74 delayed/missing luggage; Aero Contractors, 47; Green Africa, one; Max Air, five; NG Eagle and Rano Air had one delayed/missing baggage each within the year under review.

However, airlines like Azman Air, Dana Air, Overland Airways, Value Jet and XEJet had zero delayed/ missing baggage with the year under review.

Air France was top among the international airlines with 5,097 missing/delayed baggage, while KLM was second with 4,696 missing/delayed baggage and Egypt Air third with 4,462 missing/delayed baggage.

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Other airlines with missing/delayed baggage within the year under review were Royal Air Maroc, 3,999; British Airways, 3,737; Kenya Airways, 3,122; Virgin Atlantic, 2, 942; Delta Airlines, 2,321; Air Cote d’Ivoire, 1,723; Ethiopian Airlines, 1,197; ASKY Airlines, 1,239; African Word Airlines (AWA), 670; Air Peace, 309 and Emirates Airlines with 79 missing/delayed baggage within the period. Also, airlines like Qatar Airways had 2,090 delayed/missing baggage; Rwand Air, 943; Saudi Air, 13; South African Airways, 259; TAAG Angola, 1,349; Turkish Airline, 2,835; Uganda Air, 487, and United Airlines from United States, 1,130.

However, Cronos Airlines, Overland Airways, Ibom Air and Value Jet Airlines, all recorded zero missing/delayed baggage in their international/regional operations within the period.

Three of the airlines, Overland, Ibom Air and Value Jet Airlines are Nigerian airlines operating regional services.

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The report showed that more missing or delayed baggage were recorded among international airlines than domestic carriers.

According to the report, about 26 of the 30 international airlines recorded 47,493 missing or delayed luggage within the period, while 10 out of the 15 domestic airlines recorded 430 missing or delayed baggage in 2024.

However, 43,569 of the missing or delayed baggage were later found, while the remaining 4,354 baggage were not declared found by the airline within the period.

Among the international carriers, 43,140 baggage were found, while the domestic airlines recorded 429 baggage recovery within the period.

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha is the Aviation Correspondent at BusinessDay Media Limited, publishers of BusinessDay Newspapers. She is also the Deputy Editor, BusinessDay Weekender Magazine, the Saturday Weekend edition of BusinessDay. She holds a BSC in Mass Communication from the prestigious University of Nigeria, Nsukka and a Masters degree in Marketing at the University of Lagos. As the lead writer on the aviation desk, Ifeoma is responsible and in charge of the three weekly aviation and travel pages in BusinessDay and BDSunday. She also overseas and edits all pages of BusinessDay Saturday Weekender. She has written various investigative, features and news stories in aviation and business related issues and has been severally nominated for award in the category of Aviation Writer of the Year by the Nigeria Media Nite-Out awards; one of the Nigeria’s most prestigious media awards ceremonies. Ifeoma is a one-time winner of the prestigious Nigeria Media Merit Award under the 'Aviation Writer of the Year' Category. She is the 2025 Eloy Award winner under the Print Media Journalist category. She has undergone several journalism trainings by various prestigious organisations. Ifeoma is also a fellow of the Female Reporters Leadership Fellowship of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism.

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