Air Peace has faulted the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority’s (NCAA) August 2026 flight disruption report, disputing the regulator’s figures and saying only 15 per cent of the delays recorded by the airline during the month were caused by internal operational factors.
The NCAA’s August report listed Air Peace as operating 1,864 flights, of which 1,330 were delayed, representing a 71.4 per cent delay rate. The regulator’s overall figures showed 4,765 delays and 36 cancellations across 7,961 domestic flights operated by 15 airlines during the month.
The NCAA’s published figures placed Air Peace as the airline with the highest number of delayed flights during the month.
However, Air Peace Chief Operating Officer, Oluwatoyin Olajide, in a statement on Thursday, said the airline actually operated 2,564 flights in August, arguing that the omission of more than 700 flights from the NCAA’s data significantly distorted its reported performance.
Olajide said an internal review of the airline’s August operations showed that 391 delayed flights, representing 15 per cent of the delays experienced during the month, were attributable to internal factors, while the majority were linked to external operational challenges.
She said the internally caused delays were largely associated with technical issues requiring unscheduled maintenance and fuel-related challenges, while airport congestion and traffic accounted for more than 51 per cent of the external delays recorded by the airline.
The airline also identified airport infrastructure deficiencies, adverse weather, industrial action, bird strikes and damage to an aircraft by a ground-handling company among the factors that disrupted its operations during the month.
According to Air Peace, the impact of an aviation-sector industrial dispute that began on August 11 lasted for more than 14 days, resulting in flight rescheduling, delays and cancellations.
Olajide also cited a bird strike involving one of the airline’s aircraft, 5N-BYG, in Abuja. She said the incident damaged the aircraft’s inlet cowl beyond acceptable limits, requiring repairs that cost about $1.8 million and keeping the aircraft out of service for more than a week.
The airline said the aircraft normally operates at least eight sectors daily and carries about 1,000 passengers, meaning its removal from service had a significant effect on subsequent flight operations.
Air Peace explained that adverse weather conditions during the month resulted in mandatory safety holds and diversions, with a single diversion capable of causing several hours of consequential delays.
The airline maintained that such disruptions should not be attributed solely to the carrier, particularly where they arise from airport congestion, infrastructure limitations, weather conditions or other circumstances outside its operational control.
Olajide also questioned the timing and methodology of the NCAA’s monthly reporting, asking why the regulator began the series with August rather than July, shortly after publishing its first- and second-quarter reports on July 31.
She said the absence of equivalent July monthly data, alongside the rapid publication of the August figures, raised questions about the completeness of the data used to assess individual airlines.
Air Peace further argued that the NCAA’s report should distinguish between delays caused by airlines and those arising from external operational conditions before attributing responsibility to carriers.
The airline said it has invested significantly in fleet availability, crew capacity, training and maintenance, while acknowledging the need to continue improving its internal processes to reduce delays within its control.
It pointed out that airlines could not independently overcome constraints such as severe airport congestion, inadequate infrastructure, adverse weather and other operational restrictions.
Air Peace urged the NCAA to review and audit its data-collection methods to ensure future disruption reports accurately capture airlines’ operational volumes and distinguish between internal and external causes of delays.
