Air Peace has disputed the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority’s (NCAA) August flight disruption report, saying the regulator underreported its flight operations and failed to properly account for external factors that contributed to delays during the month.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the airline said it operated 2,564 flights in August, compared with the 1,864 flights recorded for it in the NCAA report.
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The airline said the difference of more than 700 flights affected the calculation of its reported delay rate and did not accurately reflect its operational performance.
PREMIUM TIMES had earlier reported that the NCAA recorded 7,961 domestic flights in August, of which 4,765 were delayed and 36 cancelled.
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Air Peace recorded the highest number of delayed flights, with 1,330 delays from the 1,864 flights listed by the regulator, meaning about seven in 10 of its recorded flights were delayed.
The NCAA figures showed that 666 of the Air Peace delays lasted between 16 minutes and one hour, 400 lasted between one and two hours, 156 between two and three hours, while 108 lasted three hours or more. The airline also recorded seven cancellations.
However, the regulator’s report did not provide a breakdown attributing the delays to specific internal or external causes.
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Air Peace said an internal review of its August flight data showed that 391 delayed flights were caused by factors within the airline’s operations.
The airline described the 391 flights as representing 15 per cent of the delays recorded during the month and said the remaining disruptions were caused by external factors.
The internal factors identified by the airline included technical problems that required unscheduled maintenance and fuel-related issues.
Air Peace said airport congestion and traffic accounted for more than 51 per cent of its externally caused delays.
It also listed bird strikes, airport infrastructure problems, adverse weather conditions, industrial action by aviation unions and damage to an aircraft by a ground-handling company among the external factors affecting its operations.
Industrial action, bird strike affected operations
The airline said the industrial action that began on 11 August continued to affect its operations for more than 14 days through rescheduling, cancellations and disruption to subsequent flight rotations.
PREMIUM TIMES had reported at the time that aviation unions disrupted Air Peace operations on 11 August as part of an industrial dispute, leaving passengers affected and forcing the airline to adjust its operations.
Air Peace also cited a bird strike involving one of its aircraft, 5N-BYG, in Abuja.
According to the airline, the bird strike damaged the aircraft’s inlet cowl beyond acceptable limits and required repairs costing about $1.8 million.
The aircraft, which the airline said normally operated at least eight sectors a day and carried about 1,000 passengers, was removed from service for more than a week while the damaged component was replaced.
The airline said the aircraft’s absence contributed to disruptions in its flight schedule.
Airline questions NCAA figures
Air Peace questioned why the NCAA began its monthly flight disruption reporting with August rather than July, following the publication of its first- and second-quarter reports on 31 July.
The airline said the August report was released only 13 days after the end of the month and argued that it should have included information on the industrial action and other circumstances that affected flight operations.
It also questioned why the report did not distinguish between delays caused by airlines and those resulting from airport infrastructure, congestion, weather and other factors outside their control.
Air Peace urged the NCAA to review and audit its data collection methods to ensure future reports accurately reflect airlines’ operations and the causes of flight disruptions.
The airline said it remained committed to improving its internal processes and reducing delays within its control, but argued that carriers could not independently resolve problems such as airport congestion, inadequate infrastructure and adverse weather.
The NCAA has yet to publicly respond to Air Peace’s position.
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