Airlines fly lucrative routes as plane shortage lingers in Nigeria

By Joy Baba-Yesufu

Nigerian airlines are prioritising flights to airports with more passenger traffic as the shortage of aircraft persists.
The aircraft shortage is fuelled by high maintenance costs of airplanes and the grounding of some aircraft by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) due to lack of or poor maintenance.
As a result of the situation, airlines have reduced flights to destinations with lower passenger traffic, as they maximise the available fleet to feed destinations with higher demand so as to get higher returns.
Small airports such as Ilorin, Akure, Anambra, Asaba, Ibadan, Calabar and Enugu, among others, are seeing fewer flights while routes like Lagos to Abuja, Port Harcourt, Owerri and Kano have frequent flights landing and take-off schedules.
In the last few months, few planes have had to feed several passengers on domestic routes as Nigerian airlines struggle with fleet reduction owing to high cost of maintenance.
Airlines that have sent their aircraft on maintenance are unable to return them as a result of the skyrocketing costs fuelled by foreign exchange scarcity.
Others have been forced by the NCAA to ground their aircraft for the inability to send them for maintenance.
In addition to these, the grounding of Dana Air, a relatively low-cost carrier, which had six aircraft in its fleet, has also impacted the fleet operating domestic routes.
Routes previously operated by Dana Air have seen increases in ticket costs. The airlines which previously operated two or more flights to these destinations may either operate one daily flight or not have any flight at all.
Data from NCAA shows that 13 domestic airlines operating in Nigeria have a total of 91 aircraft. This data includes aircraft that have gone on maintenance.
Sources further said that apart from Dana Air that has been grounded, over half of the 91 aircraft have gone on maintenance, putting a strain on the few operating aircraft.