H1 2024: Economic Turmoil Stagnates Nigeria Air Passenger Traffic

Chinedu Eze

The hope that air passenger traffic in Nigeria will improve this year has not materialise as the half year passenger traffic report showed that the sector has been stagnated by economic challenges.

Numbers obtained from the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), showed that a total number of 5, 609, 146 passengers travelled between January-June.

While numbers for H1 2023 could not be accessed as at the time of filing this report, the 2024 half year air passenger traffic record is a clear indication of the distressed state of the Nigerian economy. 

The NCAA), also indicated that total in-bound and out-bound international passenger traffic within the period was 1, 933, 144.

This shows that while more Nigerians are travelling out of the country as aginst domestic air travel, a development some industry experts attributed to low capacity and high airfares.

Analysis of the numbers showed that from January to June 2024, Aero Contractors airlifted 376, 713 passengers; Arik Air carried 447, 403 passengers; Dana Air carried 299, 040 passengers and Overland Airways airlifted 83, 435 passengers.

Also, Air Peace carried 2, 194, 476 passengers during the period, while Max Air airlifted 419, 392 passengers; Ibom Air, 587, 063 passengers; United Nigeria Airlines carried 481, 740 passengers and Green Africa carried 214, 817 passengers.

ValueJet carried 218, 448 passengers; Rano Air, 211, 243 passengers, NG Eagle airlifted 50, 182 and Azman Air lifted 26, 112 during the period under consideration.

Also, out of 1992 flights Aero Contractors recorded 740 delays; Arik Air recorded 1, 378 delays in 2, 331 flights, Dana Air, 999 in 1446 flights and Overland Airways, 696 in 1227 flights.

Air Peace also recorded 5, 350 delays in 11, 111 flights, Max Air recorded 1, 247 in 2, 297 flights; Ibom Air recorded 1, 508 delays in 3, 879 flights; while United Nigeria operated 3, 912 and recorded 2, 439 delays.

Green Africa operated 2, 368 flights and recorded 836 delays; ValuJet, 1659 flights and recorded 582 delays; Rano Air, 2, 464 flights and recorded 761 delays; NG Eagle, 567 flights with 33 delays and Azman Air operated 145 flights with 76 delays.

Further analysis showed that domestic airlines recorded a lot of flight cancelation during the period, as Aero Contractors operated 1992 flights and recorded 33 cancellations; Arik Air, 2331 flights with 32 cancelations; Dana Air, 1446 flights with 7 cancellations and Overland Airways, which operated 1227 flights recorded 57 cancellations.

Air Peace during the period operated 11, 111 flights and cancelled 294 flights, Max Air operated 2297 flights and cancelled 23; Ibom Air, 3879 and cancelled 71 flights; United Nigeria Airlines, 3912 flights and canceled 82, while Green Africa Airways operated 2368 flights and cancelled 50.

Also, ValueJet operated 1659 flights and cancelled 18; Rano Air, 2464 flights and cancelled 14; NG Eagle operated 567 flights and cancelled 15 and Azman Air operated 145 flights but no record of cancellations.

In total, domestic airlines operated 35, 398 flights in the first half of year 2024; while international airlines operated 7, 144 flights.

Reacting to the development, the Managing Director, Flight and Logistics Solutions Limited, Amos Akpan, said: “As the number of aircraft in operation by domestic airlines get fewer, schedules shrink, airports have fewer flights, and the domestic air traveller’s option become limited (less or no options). Domestic airlines cannot access forex to pay for turn around maintenance of their aircraft. There are fewer aircraft operating scheduled commercial flights within Nigeria now than three years ago. The reason the situation is not glaring is because the macro economic conditions has limited the ability of the domestic air traveller from taking trips by air.”

According to him, domestic airlines are losing customers to alternative modes and wondered how the industry would survive and rebound without a review of certain government policies.

“All stakeholders are continuously engaging with the government and the international aviation community for applicable solutions to our problems. The problems have been identified and the solutions are also known. The performance and status of current operators in the Nigerian aviation industry indicates they  match internationally specified standards for the industry. 

Those who wish to travel during this coming christmas season will pay higher fares than ever done in Nigeria because the cost of producing the service will reflect on the sales price.We are inclined to postulate here that the Nigerian economy might cause most people that would have traveled by air to either find alternative mode or they won’t travel,” he said.

However, the Executive Secretary of Aviation Round Table (ART), Olu Fidel Ohunayo, told THISDAY that low capacity spiked up fares because demand became higher than supply and the distress in the economy has reduced disposable income of the middle class, adding that even if there is capacity, many may not have the money to pay for the ticket to fly.

Ohunayo also observed that the recent statement credited to NCAA; that if it were to go by the result of these audits it ought to ground all the airlines, might discourage lessors from leasing aircraft to airline operators.

“I think the recent statement by the regulator that none of the airlines is financially viable would also put panicbutton that would not sound well in the ears of the regular international lessors, insurance companies and business partners. The battle is on. While we look at the macroeconomic issues for the federal government to solve, the industry can also begin to solve theirs and one of the ways that I am looking at is, I think they need to look at that rigid age limit of aircraft,” he said.

He said that there are some airports that need narrow body aircraft and some of the aircraft that could be acquires for operation might be older than the minimum age limit policy, which will hamper Nigerian operators from acquiring such aircraft.

“These airports need very small aircraft for flights to go to support the major airports. So we need small airports to have flights and the only way they can have flights is when you introduce 20, 10, 25-seater aircraft. Most of these aircraft are normal.They have been re-kitted, updated and made to meet with noise levels. The engines have been retuned to be more fuel efficient and it’s approach to fly in Europe and America for these kinds of airports. So we are not having them here because of the age limit,” he said.

All these, he said, would encourage Nigerian carriers to have capacity to meet the passenger demand, remarking that the use of smaller airports in Nigeria has become important because of insecurity in the country, noting that these airports will be serviced by narrow body aircraft that will feed the bigger airports with wider body equipment.

“Because of the insecurity, these people are not risking that road. So they all take to those cities where they are sure of connecting flights, Abuja, Lagos or Port Harcourt. So we need to open up this small airports for flights.And when you do this, you are making better use of your airspace, you are having more employment within the industry, more experience for the operational personnel, more revenue for all the agencies, more improvement to Nigeria’s GDP. So we must look beyond the present Air Operator Certificate (AOC) and look at that option of licensing a new set of people (operators),” he added.