Nigeria’s Flight Delays Are Getting Worse. Airlines Want Airport Slots Rethought
Nigerian airline operators have provided an in-depth explanation for pervasive flight delays and cancellations, citing airport congestion, infrastructure deficits, adverse weather, and technical issues as key culprits. They advocate for better data classification and propose a coordinated slot management system to ease operational pressures and improve efficiency. This transparency aims to foster better understanding and collaborative solutions within the aviation sector.
For Nigerian air travellers, a morning flight can now come with an uncomfortable question: how late will this one be?
New figures from the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority show just how common the problem has become. Domestic airlines operated 7,961 flights in August 2026, with 4,765 recorded as delayed and 36 cancelled. That means about 60 per cent of the flights in the NCAA's monthly report were delayed, although the figures include delays of 16 minutes or more and do not mean all passengers faced long waits.
Airline executives discussed the problem this week at the Aviation Day of the Akwaaba African Travel Market in Lagos. Their argument was straightforward: some delays are within an airline's control, but many begin elsewhere in the airport system.
Why mornings are becoming a problem
Adedayo Olawuyi, Chief Commercial Officer of United Nigeria Airlines, pointed to morning congestion as one of the biggest problems.
Several airlines tend to schedule flights around the same early-morning period. That puts pressure on check-in counters, security points, boarding gates, parking positions, ground handlers and taxiways at almost the same time.
Remi Jibodu, Chief Operating Officer of Murtala Muhammed Airport Terminal Two, said the concentration is particularly obvious around the 7 a.m. departure window, when large numbers of passengers and aircraft are trying to move through the airport within a short period.
The result can spread through the rest of the day. One aircraft leaves late, misses its next slot or arrives late at another airport, and the delay follows the aircraft to its next flight.
Weather can turn one delay into several
Some disruptions are harder for an airline to prevent.
Olawuyi cited a Lagos-Kano flight that was delayed because of bad weather in Kano. When the aircraft eventually left Lagos, it still could not land because a thunderstorm had affected the runway lighting system. It had to return to Lagos.
He also pointed to operating-hour restrictions at some Nigerian airports. When a flight is pushed late into the night at an airport without the facilities for night operations, an airline may have little choice but to cancel it.
Trevor Henry, Chief Commercial Officer of ValueJet, added other sources of disruption, including presidential movements, security queues, boarding congestion and taxiway traffic.
The airline representatives also challenged the way delay statistics are interpreted. Olawuyi argued that the NCAA's figures should make a clearer distinction between delays an airline could have prevented and those caused by weather, airport infrastructure or other external factors.
That distinction matters when passengers are deciding who should be held responsible.
The proposed fix starts with the timetable
Jibodu wants airlines and airport operators to coordinate departure times more closely.
His proposal is a coordinated slot system that would spread flights across the morning instead of allowing many carriers to concentrate departures around the same time.
It does not necessarily mean cancelling the popular early flights. The idea is to move some of them slightly — perhaps from 7 a.m. to 7:30 or 8 a.m. — so that passengers, aircraft and airport facilities are not all competing for space at once.
It is a practical proposal, although airlines have their own reasons for protecting particular departure times. Passengers may prefer them, and airlines build their schedules around connecting flights, aircraft availability and demand.
BASL is also developing an airport collaborative decision-making platform that would allow airlines, air traffic controllers, ground handlers and other airport operators to share information about disruptions and respond before they become larger problems.
And what are passengers actually entitled to?
This part of the conversation matters because passengers are often left guessing about what an airline owes them when a flight is delayed.
Under the NCAA's current passenger-rights rules, passengers on domestic flights are entitled to refreshments after two hours of delay. If the delay goes beyond three hours, the airline is required to reimburse the full value of the ticket under the applicable rules.
For qualifying domestic cancellations, passengers can also be entitled to 25 per cent of the fare, unless they were informed at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure, alongside reimbursement of the ticket value.
Passengers do not have to settle for verbal assurances at the airport either. The NCAA has a consumer-protection system through which unresolved complaints can be formally reported.
The bigger issue is that compensation rules can only deal with a disruption after it happens.
The industry now has to work on why so many flights are getting disrupted in the first place. Better scheduling, better coordination and better information-sharing could reduce some of the pressure before passengers are already sitting at the gate waiting for an announcement.