It’s boom time in the international segment of the Nigerian air transport sector, with 18 foreign airlines now operating 200 flight frequencies weekly at an estimated revenue of $1.7 billion yearly.

The surge in frequencies and turnover is not unconnected with the increase in patronage from the globetrotting Nigerian public, now requiring an estimated 54,997 seats every week.

Sadly, Nigerian flag carriers, led by Air Peace airline, are still outmuscled in the highly competitive sector, accounting for only 9.96 per cent of the market share.

Confirming the frequency surge, the 2025 Weekly Foreign Airlines Flight Frequencies report revealed that while the foreign airlines are dominating on the Nigerian routes, the country’s airlines provide only 5,498 weekly seats to regional and a few international routes out of Nigeria’s five international airports when compared to the ones provided by the 18 foreign airlines.

The 18 foreign airlines on the list are British Airways, 14 weekly frequencies; Virgin Atlantic, seven; KLM, 21; Air France, 11; Lufthansa, 13; Ethiopian Airlines, 27; Emirates Airlines, 14; and Royal Air Maroc, with another seven weekly frequencies.

There are Qatar Airways, seven; Turkish Airlines, 13; Egypt Air, four; Delta Airlines, seven; Kenya Airways, seven; Africa World Airlines, 14; ASKY Airlines, 12; RwandAir, 10; South African Airways, seven; and Saudi Airlines with five weekly flights.

The breakdown of the statistics indicated that Ethiopian Airlines, the national carrier of Ethiopia, leads the pack among foreign carriers with the highest seat capacity and was closely followed by Emirates Airlines, the flag carrier of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

For instance, the airline operates five times daily to four international airports in the country, operating three different aircraft brands to Nigeria in the process.

The East African airline has a total weekly seat of 8,275 on the Nigerian routes, using Boeing 777-300ER, B737 Max and B787 Dreamliner on the Lagos, Abuja, Enugu and Kano routes.

Ethiopian Airlines operates twice daily to the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), using B777-300ER and Boeing 737 Max with combined seat capacities of 451 and 189, respectively, while it also deploys B777-300ER to Abuja with the same 451 seat capacity.

On the Enugu route, the airline operates B737 Max with 189 seating capacity and Kano airport with B787, which has 335 seating capacity. Just recently, the airline unveiled plans to increase its weekly frequencies to the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja, to 10 from the present seven on the route. The new route commences on October 28, 2025.

Also, Emirates Airlines operates 6,314 seats weekly from its base in Dubai. The statistics revealed that Emirates operates a combined 14 weekly frequencies from its base in Dubai to Lagos and Abuja airports, using B777-300ER with configuration of 451 capacities each.

KLM, the Dutch flag carrier, operates 21 weekly frequencies to three major airports in Nigeria – Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja with a combined figure of 5,964 available seats.

the airline deploys Airbus 330-300 and A330-200 with seat capacities of 292 and 268, respectively. It operates the A330-300 aircraft to Lagos and Port Harcourt airports, while the A330-200 is deployed to Abuja airport.

British Airways from the United Kingdom operates 14 weekly frequencies to Nigeria, with seven each to Lagos and Abuja airports, using B747-400 and B777, respectively.

The breakdown of the aircraft configuration indicated that the B747 aircraft has a capacity of 374, while the B777 is configured for 317 seats, totalling 4,837 weekly.

The Middle East carrier, Turkish Airlines, has a total weekly available seat of 4,345 to two airports in Nigeria – Lagos and Abuja and 13 weekly frequencies to the aerodromes.

The airline operates two A330 aircraft with a configuration of 335 seats and a total of 2,345 and 2,010 seats on Lagos and Abuja routes weekly.

Also, Virgin Atlantic Airways, with its Airbus 330-300 and configuration of 292 seating capacity, operates seven weekly frequencies to Lagos airport and has available seats of 2,044.

Besides, Lufthansa, the German carrier, operates 13 weekly scheduled flights to two points in Nigeria – Lagos and Abuja airports with A330-300 on the two routes and 3,796 available seats.

For instance, it operates seven weekly frequencies to Lagos with 2,044 available seats and 1,752 seats for six weekly frequencies to Abuja. Air France Airlines operates 11 weekly frequencies to Lagos and Abuja airports with A330-200 and A330-200 aircraft and a total combination of 3,116 available seats.

The document revealed that Air France flies seven frequencies to Lagos with A330-300, 2,044 seats and four weekly frequencies to Abuja with A330-200 and 1,072 available seats.

Qatar Airways, from its base in Doha, flies only into the Lagos airport with B788 aircraft, configured for 335 seating capacity and seven weekly frequencies. The airline has 2,345 available seats out of Nigeria weekly.

The South African national carrier, South African Airways, according to the statistics, operates four weekly frequencies into the Lagos airport, using A330-300 with 292 seating capacity and 2,044 available weekly seats.

EgyptAir, the Cairo-based airline and the national carrier of Egypt, operates A330 aircraft with the configuration of 335 seats and weekly available seats of 1,340 at the Lagos airport.

Also, Royal Air Maroc operates seven weekly frequencies to Lagos airport with B737 aircraft, configured for 189 passengers. The North African national carrier has 1,323 weekly available seats out of Nigeria.

United States carrier, Delta Air Lines, operates seven weekly flights into Nigeria through the Lagos airport. The second leading carrier in the U.S. operates A330 aircraft with 335 configurations at 2,345 available seats weekly.

Kenya Airways, which operates seven weekly frequencies to the Lagos airport from its base in Nairobi, deploys B738 aircraft with a seating capacity of 162 at 1,134 available seats weekly.

Besides, RwandAir operates six weekly flights to Lagos airport from its hub in Kigali, using B738 aircraft, equally configured for 162 passengers and 972 weekly available seats.

Saudi Airlines, which flies five frequencies weekly into the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA), Kano, using B777 aircraft with 451 seats on each flight and 2,255 available seats weekly on the route.

Besides, ASKY Airlines operates B737 MAX 8 aircraft and B737-800 into two Nigerian airports – Lagos and Abuja from its base in Lome, Togo, making 12 weekly frequencies into the two airports.

The aircraft’s configuration is 154 seats on each route, making 1,848 available weekly seats.

Africa World Airlines (AWA), flies Embraer 145 narrow-body aircraft with 14 weekly frequencies into Lagos and Abuja airports, making seven frequencies to each of the two airports. The seat configuration on the aircraft is 50, making it 700 available seats weekly out of the two points in Nigeria.

Meanwhile, The Guardian investigation revealed that only three Nigerian airlines are on either regional or international routes. The airlines are Air Peace, Ibom Air and Overland Airways, with the three airlines providing only 5,498 seat capacities and weekly frequencies of 41 on the regional and international routes they operate to.

The three airlines also operate only out of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos. The 5,498-seat capacity showed only 9.9 per cent of the available seats, while the weekly 41 frequencies out of the international airports were just 20.5 per cent of the total 200 frequencies operated by the 18 international airlines.

The further breakdown of Nigerian airlines’ participation revealed that Air Peace had the most available seats with an estimated 4,340 and 21 frequencies weekly to seven destinations, mostly regional.

This is followed by Ibom Air with seven frequencies to Accra, Ghana and an estimated 630 available seats weekly. Also, Overland Airways, which operates six weekly frequencies to two destinations in West Africa – Freetown (Sierra Leone) and Banjul (The Gambia), has a total of 528 weekly available seats on the two routes.

For instance, Air Peace presently serves six regional routes – Lagos- Banjul, three frequencies weekly; Lagos-Accra, seven frequencies weekly; Lagos-Abidjan, thrice weekly; Lagos- Monrovia, thrice weekly; Lagos-Dakar, three weekly flights and Lagos-Freetown twice weekly.

The airline also operates to London Gatwick Airport from Lagos Airport seven times weekly. For the regional routes, Air Peace operates Embraer 145 and E195-E2 aircraft with 50 and 124 seats, respectively, while it deploys its B777-300 aircraft with a 320 capacity to the London routes.

In all, the airline has 4,340 available weekly seats on its seven regional and international routes. However, available seats and frequencies on Air Peace are set to increase with the planned commencement of London Heathrow and London Gatwick routes from Abuja airport, effective October 26, 2025.

For Ibom Air, the airline offers daily flights to Accra, Ghana, from the Lagos airport, using either Airbus A220-300 or CRJ 900 aircraft. The A220-300 has 132 capacity, while the CRJ900 is configured for 90 seats. According to the estimate, Ibom Air has 630 seats available on the Accra route weekly.

Furthermore, Overland Airways operates to the Freetown International Airport (FIA), Sierra Leone and Banjul in The Gambia, thrice weekly from its base in Lagos.

The airline deploys Embraer 175 with 88 seats. Overall, Overland Airways has 528 available seats on the two routes weekly.

Expert views

Managing Director, Aviation Africa Plate-Forme (APP), Dr. Frank Ogochukwu, said that the 18 foreign airlines earn an estimated $1 billion to $1.7 billion yearly from flying into multiple entries in Nigeria at 75 to 85 per cent load factor.

He also estimated $450-$700 as an average net one-way fare sold in Nigeria per seat by foreign airlines at $19–$33 million per week. Ogochukwu further projected that with $19-$33 million per week and a load factor of 75-85 per cent within the same period, foreign airlines earn about $1.0–$1.7 billion per year in gross ticket revenue.

He reckoned that Nigeria remains one of Africa’s largest origin-and-destination markets with strong Visiting Friends and Relatives (VFR), student, business, religious and oil and gas traffic.

Ogochukwu regretted that Nigerian airlines lacked the necessary network scale, capacity, alliances and distribution to compete with foreign airlines while globally plugging Nigeria into large hubs with onward connections, interline/ Frequent Flyer Programme (FFP) benefits and strong Global Distribution System (GDS).

He added: “Local operators face regulatory/financial headwinds in terms of high financing costs for fleet renewal, dollarised inputs (leasing, maintenance, insurance, spares), taxes/charges, and currency risk.

“As of mid-2025, flights from Nigeria are operated by 38–39 airlines to 50+ airports in 30+ countries—an indicator of breadth dominated by foreign carriers. Nigerian carriers remain few on long-haul, with most local capacity focused domestically and regionally.

“With the current dominance of foreign airlines on major international routes, the net foreign-exchange outflows are huge because a large share of international ticket revenue sold in Nigeria accrues to foreign airlines. This revenue is further repatriated, pressuring foreign exchange as seen in Nigeria’s 2024 clearance of previously trapped airline funds.”

Ogochukwu called for reciprocity of Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA) and fairer slot access for Nigerian operators by the Nigerian government to address the imbalance.

Also, an aircraft engineer with the defunct national carrier, Nigeria Airways, Sheri Kyari, said that since the advent of foreign airlines into the Nigerian airspace, the country had never had a positive economic growth from aviation.

According to him, Nigeria and its carriers had been deliberately short-changed using avio-politics and other international diplomatic manipulations to keep the country economically disadvantaged.

According to Kyari, it would be difficult for Nigeria to win the economic race because of the penchant of Nigerians to pay huge airfares on foreign airlines’ seats as a status symbol.

Like Ogochukwu, Kyari insisted that Nigeria was losing a huge amount of money as capital flight yearly to these lopsided international operations, but could not provide an estimated figure.

“While it is difficult to give a near figure because of the absence of statistics, suffice it to say, hundreds of millions of dollars are being lost to capital flight. You can imagine that for decades, the country has not been operating any flights out of Nigeria. I don’t consider the West African region an international flight.

“To reduce the current imbalance of this lopsided operation will require Nigeria to have more airlines with aircraft that have capacities to reciprocate the number of frequencies being operated by foreign carriers into the country. This will take time, though,” he added.

Kyari also advocated for a new national carrier for the country to reciprocate the various BASA arrangements. He, however, feared that this may also lead to new visa policies skewed against Nigeria by the various countries, especially the West, in order to reduce the influx of Nigerians going to their countries.

Capt. Peter Adenihun, Managing Director, JAMS Aviation, explained that foreign airlines operate more revenue flights to and from Nigeria due to the country’s large population, high demand for international travel and the existence of BASA arrangements with many countries.

According to Adenihun, while foreign airlines are growing their finances on the Nigerian routes, the indigenous carriers face ageing fleets, infrastructure limitations and operational complexities challenges, which hinder their ability to match foreign carriers’ capacity and service offerings.

He said: “Nigeria, being Africa’s most populous country, presents a significant market for international travel and business, attracting many foreign carriers.

“Nigeria has Bilateral Air Service Agreements (BASAs) with over 80 countries, which facilitate foreign airlines’ operations and flight frequency to and from Nigeria.

“Foreign airlines generally benefit from more modern aircraft, better maintenance facilities and superior global operational networks enabling them to offer more reliable and frequent flights.”

Besides, he posited that foreign carriers often enjoy greater brand recognition and customer trust, which attracts more passengers and generates higher revenue.

He advised the country’s operators to acquire more modern equipment to reduce maintenance costs, technical failures and flight disasters. Adenihun further challenged the government to provide efficient infrastructure within the local aviation sector in a bid to limit the operational efficiency and expansion of Nigerian carriers. (The Guardian)