Overland, United Nigeria, Azman, record highest number of flight delays in Q1 2023

Overland Airways, United Nigeria Airways and Azman Air were the carriers with the highest number of flight delays in the first quarter of 2023.

Out of all flights operated by Overland Airways, the airline recoded 91percent flight delays, United Nigeria Airlines recorded 81 percent, Azman 73 percent flight delays.

This is contained in an executive summary report of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) on international and domestic flight operations from January to March 2023 (Q1 2023) showing that 3,073 flights operated on international routes while 182, 88 flights operated on domestic routes.

The report obtained by BusinessDay shows that within the period under review, 25 international airlines operated 3,073 flights with 1,193 flight delays, 24 cancellations, six air returns, 9,087 missing baggage, 7,942 recovered luggage, two overbooking, 25 cases of discourtesy, 495, 076 outbound passengers, 375, 700 total number of inbound passengers and 27 cases of complaints of which eight were resolved by NCAA.

For domestic airlines operations within the same period, 11 domestic airlines operated 182,88 flights, and recorded 101,28 flight delays, 284 cancellations, 28 air returns, 31 delayed/missing baggage with all 31 baggage recovered, three overbookings, 42 reported cases of discourtesy, 45 cases of complaints and 22 resolved cases.

Among the international airlines, Africa World has the highest number of international flights operated to the country with 314 flights, 97 delayed flights making up 31 percent of the total number of flight delays among international airlines to the country.

The airline recorded 223 missing baggage with all baggage recovered.

Saudi Air has the most flight delay amounting to 74 percent, Egypt Air, 68 percent of its flights are delayed, followed by Cronos 60 percent, Kenya Airways 57 percent, Air Peace 55 percent, Air Code d’Ivoire 54 percent, BADR Air 54 percent, RwandAir 51 percent, British Airways 47 percent, Ethiopian Airlines 43 percent, Turkish Airlines, 43 percent, Royal Air Maroc 32 percent, ASKY Airlines 37percent, Africa World 31 percent, TAAG Angola 31 percent in that order.

United State’s United Airlines has the least flight delays at three percent followed by Lufthansa Airlines, Middle East Airlines at 13 percent; Virgin Atlantic Airways at 14 percent, Air France and Delta at 19bpercent, South African Airways at 22 percent, Qatar Airways at 28 percent making them the most two reliable airlines in terms of airlines that have fewer delays.

On the domestic scene, Overland Airways with 91percent flight delays United Nigeria Airlines has 81 percent, Azman 73 percent, Dana 72 percent, Max Air 68 percent, Aero Contractors 68 percent, Air Peace 66 percent, Arik 59 percent.

Air Peace’s recorded 1602 delayed flights out of 2421 flights operated by the airline in the first quarter of 2023 amounting to 66 percent of its flights being delayed.

Aero Contractors within that period operated 465 flights with 314 flights delayed; Arik Air operated 804 flights with 473 flights delayed; 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 ax Air had 653 flights recorded 445 delays; Ibom Air had 850 flights and recorded 295 delays which is an average of 35 percent.

Read also: 10 things Nigerians dislike about international flights from Lagos

While Green Africa operated 533 flights, it recorded 193 flight delays, Value Jet seems to be the most reliable airline with just 65 flight delays out of 297 flights operated. The carrier which is less than one year since it started operations has continued to grow in operations and become a reliable airline for many Nigerians.

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

For the same period, Aero recorded just one air return out of 465 flights operated. The same number of air returns was recorded by Arik Air, Dana, and United Nigeria while Azman, Green Africa, and Overland Value Jet recorded no air returns.

Air Peace on the other hand recorded four air returns out of 2421 flights operated.