Air Peace Challenges NCAA's Flight Delay Report Accuracy

Air Peace, Nigeria's largest airline, has contested the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority's (NCAA) August operations report, which indicated that the airline operated 1,864 flights with 1,330 delays and seven cancellations. Air Peace asserts it actually conducted 2,564 flights, with the omission of over 700 flights distorting its delay rate.

In a statement by Chief Operating Officer Oluwatoyin Olajide, the airline reported that only 391 delays, about 15% of total delays, were due to controllable factors, primarily unscheduled maintenance and fuel issues. The majority of disruptions were attributed to external conditions, with airport congestion causing over 51% of delays.

Additionally, a bird strike incident involving aircraft 5N-BYG resulted in significant repair costs and grounded the plane for over a week. An industrial action starting on August 11 further disrupted scheduling for over 14 days.

Air Peace criticized the NCAA's methodology and called for an audit of its data collection process to ensure accurate reporting in the future. As of September 18, the NCAA had not responded to these claims.