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Nigeria’s aviation industry has taken major strides over the years. It has recorded notable gains in safety, infrastructure, regulation and investment.
From the Nigeria Airways era of the 1960s to today’s growing network of indigenous and foreign carriers, Nigeria’s aviation industry has travelled a long and often turbulent road.
The 1970s brought major airport development, while reforms in the 1990s opened the industry to greater private participation.
The collapse of Nigeria Airways in 2003 marked the end of an era, but also ushered in a new generation of private airlines.
Yet, as the country marks 66 years of independence, the sector remains weighed down by long-standing operational challenges that continue to limit its growth.
Airlines face high operating costs, expensive aviation fuel, foreign exchange pressures, airport congestion, infrastructure gaps and other bottlenecks that affect efficiency and passenger experience.
While reforms and fresh investments have raised hopes for a stronger aviation industry, stakeholders say sustained efforts are needed to tackle these hurdles and turn the sector’s growing potential into broader economic opportunities for Nigeria.
Compliance with the Cape Town Convention (CTC)
For many years, global aviation companies blacklisted Nigeria for not complying with the ‘Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment’ and the ‘Protocol on Matters Specific to Aircraft Equipment’, which was concluded in Cape Town on November 16, 2001. The primary aim of both documents is to resolve the problem of obtaining opposable rights to aviation assets which includes airframes, aircraft engines and helicopters.
But Nigeria failed to comply with this agreement as some local operators had, in the past, breached it, making it difficult for lessors to have access to their aircraft leased by domestic airlines that default. This made the country’s compliance score dip below the required threshold, causing international lessors and companies to place restrictions on it and made it impossible for domestic airlines to access international aircraft leases.
But in September last year, Justice John Tsoho, Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, signed the Cape Town Convention (CTC) practice direction to enable domestic airline operators to access aircraft on dry lease. This development caused Nigeria to be removed from the watch list and the country’s global aviation compliance score saw a significant improvement in the CTC practice direction. In October this year, the Aviation Working Group (AWG) stated on its website that Nigeria’s score on the CTC Compliance Index had increased to 75.5%, placing the country in the ‘high category’, leading to renewed interest from aircraft leasing companies in doing business with Nigeria and a reduction in insurance premiums for local airlines. The amendment to Nigeria’s domestication of the CTC Protocol now empowers the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to release aircraft to lessors on demand when lessees default, without interference from court injunctions. This change has significantly restored confidence among international aircraft lessors dealing with Nigerian airlines.
Good safety audit performance
This year, the sector recorded an impressive 91.45% Effective Implementation (EI) score at the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Coordinated Validation Mission (ICVM), held between April 15 and 22, 2026.
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The ICVM audit is an independent platform that identifies Nigeria’s internal strengths and weaknesses, as well as the external opportunities and threats that may impact on its statutory mandate of safety oversight responsibilities, safe aircraft operations and public safety. Nigeria underwent an ICAO Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme – Continuous Monitoring Approach (USOAP-CMA), from August to September 2023, scoring 70.12% in safety rating, which is considered below global safety standard.
In order to address identified deficiencies from the 2023 exercise, Nigeria conducted root cause analysis, and promptly developed a series of Corrective Action Plans (CAPs), which were validated by ICAO, thereby providing a clear roadmap for effective implementation.
N712bn MMIA expansion
The Federal Government commenced the reconstruction and expansion of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) Terminal 1, Lagos, as an intervention to transform it to a more modern, efficient and passenger-centred airport which is valued at N712 billion.
There have been upgrades to airport infrastructure including the rehabilitation of Runway 18R at Lagos Airport, refurbishment of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport’s Wing-E Terminal, and the introduction of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses for passenger transport.
Challenges
Despite some progress made, the sector is still beleaguered by numerous challenges. Last week, the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) released a communique in which it outlined some of the challenges they are facing which has caused flight disruptions.
The AON said that it is never in the interest of any airline to delay or cancel flights as this always has severe financial and image consequences. It said: “Delays and cancellations are therefore the last thing any airline wants. In Nigeria, most of the causes of delays and cancellations are factors that are neither in the control of airlines nor caused by them. Some of the more prevalent causes of delays and cancellations include but are not limited to weather. This is the major cause of delays especially during the rainy seasons and the dust haze months of November to March.”
The airline body also mentioned inadequate aircraft parking space due to congested aprons in both Lagos and Abuja airports as a major challenge. It also spoke on sunset airport restrictions, saying: “Again, because of a deficit in navigational and functional visual aids, as well as inadequate staffing numbers of technical personnel, most of the secondary airports in Nigeria are open between the hours of 7am and 6pm. Once an airline misses this operating window as a result of one or more of the above-mentioned causal factors, airlines are then forced to cancel scheduled flights to such destinations, further compounding the sub-optimal utilization of their aircraft assets.
“The closure of the airspace for security reasons to allow certain coded security movements is a significant cause of unpredictable delays across the entire system. This airspace closure for VIP movement though necessary, has its consequences on the operations of the airlines. The delays so occasioned by this factor are not caused by airlines, yet domestic airlines are regularly held responsible for their impact.
“Bird strikes and foreign object damage frequently affect aircraft during taxiing, take-off and landing. The massive delays occasioned by bird strikes are not caused by the airlines. Also, unavailability and ever rising cost of aviation fuel is a problem as JetA1 today costs above N2500 per litre and has continued to rise fast and steadily. On top of the continuous rise in the fuel price, fuel supply is at best epileptic at several secondary airports thereby causing delays.
“Inefficient air traffic flow where sometimes airlines have to wait on the ground in a queue for extended periods before being given clearance for take-off. Also, inadequate airport infrastructure including but not limited to poor check-in facilities, lack of adequate screening and exit points, unserviceable baggage carousels, inadequate and unreliable ground services equipment from the ground handling companies, all causing avoidable systemic delays.”
The AON further said that it commends the current ongoing construction and rehabilitation activities of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos but that while it appreciates the efforts of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria and the Federal Government to upgrade facilities at the airport terminal and give Nigerians a befitting infrastructure, they request that airlines, who are the key stakeholders, be carried along at the early stage to contribute their ideas towards the functionality and flow of the airport facility so as to address any design flaws that may affect functionality in future.
