NCAA faces backlash over flight data

•Experts call for audit

Controversies have trailed the latest flight disruption statistics released by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), with major domestic airlines challenging the accuracy and interpretation of the figures, particularly the number of flights attributed to individual carriers.

The NCAA’s summary of domestic airline flight disruption operations for August 2026 showed that 4,765 out of 7,961 domestic flights operated during the month were delayed, representing 59.9 percent of total operations.

However, Air Peace, the country’s largest carrier by the number of operations in the NCAA report, has disputed the figures, saying the regulator significantly understated its August flight volume and consequently overstated its delay rate.

According to the NCAA report, Air Peace operated 1,864 flights in August, of which 1,330 were delayed, translating to a delay rate of about 71.4 percent.

But the airline’s Chief Operating Officer, Mrs Oluwatoyin Olajide, in a statement, on Thursday, said Air Peace actually operated 2,564 flights during the month, 700 more flights than reflected in the NCAA report.

She argued that the omission distorted the airline’s performance metrics and gave an inaccurate picture of its operational performance.

Olajide also questioned why the NCAA commenced its monthly disruption series with August, rather than July, following the publication of its first- and second-quarter reports on July 31.

She said the absence of equivalent July data, coupled with what she described as the unusually rapid release of detailed August figures, raised questions about the regulator’s data-collection and validation processes.

The Air Peace executive further disputed the attribution of its delays, saying only 391 of the delays experienced by the airline in August were caused by internal factors.

She said the 391 flights represented about 15 per cent of the airline’s total delays, while the majority resulted from external factors, including airport congestion, weather, bird strikes, airport infrastructure limitations, industrial action and damage to aircraft by a ground-handling company.

Olajide cited the case of an Air Peace aircraft, 5N-BYG, which suffered a bird strike in Abuja and subsequently required the replacement of its inlet cowl at a cost of about $1.8 million.

In his reaction to the report, Olawuyi argued that the data should distinguish between controllable and uncontrollable delays.

“The first problem we have with that data, personally speaking, is that the data was not presented in a way where we have removed controllable delays and uncontrollable delays.”

He said airport congestion was one of the recurring causes of delays, explaining that aircraft could be prevented from pushing back or taking off on schedule because of congestion on ramps and taxiways.

He also cited technical problems and adverse weather as operational factors that airlines must manage without compromising flight safety.

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Former Military Commandant of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Group Captain John Ojikutu, in his comment on the controversy,  called for an independent audit of aviation traffic and passenger data generated by the NCAA, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA).

Ojikutu said discrepancies in passenger and traffic figures had implications beyond flight punctuality, particularly because such figures are used in the calculation and collection of aviation charges, including the Ticket Sales Charge (TSC) and Passenger Service Charge (PSC).

He argued that an independent external auditor should reconcile the different datasets maintained by the agencies.

“The NCAA and FAAN passenger traffic figures I have known for years are very different for the calculations of the TSC and PSC respectively,” he said, questioning why the figures differ.

Ojikutu also pointed to differences between NAMA’s Persons-On-Board figures and the Passenger-On-Board figures used by other agencies.

He maintained that an independent audit would help establish a common and verifiable database for flights and passenger movements and reduce disputes surrounding aviation revenues and industry statistics.

In his submission, former spokesperson of the defunct Nigeria Airways, Mr Chris Aligbe, urged the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, to establish a research and development unit to provide data-driven solutions to challenges confronting the aviation sector and guide policy decisions.

Aligbe, who is also the Chief Executive Officer of Belujane Konzult, lamented the absence of a research and development structure within the industry, saying it had contributed to poor policy decisions, particularly in route planning, airline operations and revenue generation.

“I think one of the big problems we have in the industry is that there is no section, even within the airlines or the agencies, particularly the NCAA, that is a regulator, that has a research and development unit. We need that in the industry because when airlines want to go to Abuja, for instance, the NCAA will say: ‘sorry, this is what has happened over the years. We cannot allow you to go there because you will fly empty or you’ll come back and start having problems’, he said.

“The same thing in the West Coast. I keep complaining. I am not against any airline, but I feel pain. When a small airline comes and flies 27 weekly frequencies into Nigeria to a place where Nigerians are not going directly, they are carrying our airlines, our passengers to that place and flying them out.

“It is painful. That’s why sometimes I complain vehemently. And the killer airlines, killer bugs, are coming, the sub-regional airlines. They are not going to survive for a long time because their vision is partly political and others, except maybe one or two of them. But they will undermine the bigger airlines that have been there. And when they undermine them, eventually they will die, like bugs, but they would have killed the others.

“That’s why we need research departments to be able to achieve some of these things, and improve the revenue situation. We should also be able to review the policy and revenue policy in the industry every five years,” Aligbe emphasised.