Air Peace has rejected the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority’s August 2026 flight disruption report, describing the data as inaccurate and unfair.

The airline’s Chief Operating Officer, Toyin Olajide, said the figures underreported its total flight volume and misrepresented the main causes of delays.

According to the airline, it operated 2,564 flights in August, not the 1,864 stated in the NCAA report. By leaving out more than 700 flights, the authority’s calculations inflated the reported delay rates and failed to reflect the true scale of operations.

Olajide stated that only about 15 per cent of the delays were caused by internal factors such as technical issues and fuel-related problems. The remaining 85 per cent, she said, resulted from external challenges beyond the airline’s control.

These external factors included heavy airport congestion and traffic, which accounted for more than half of the external delays, as well as bird strikes, airport facility breakdowns, bad weather and industrial action by aviation unions. One bird strike alone damaged an aircraft and took it out of service for over a week.

The airline said it remains committed to safety, on-time performance and passenger care, but cannot control issues such as congestion, weather or infrastructure problems. It urged the NCAA to review its data collection methods so that future reports accurately reflect the real causes of flight disruptions in the sector.

Photo credit: Punch Newspaper