Nigeria’s Air Peace has returned to Africa’s ten largest airlines after increasing its scheduled capacity by nearly 55% in one year.

The carrier offered 354,804 seats in September, compared with 229,412 during the same month in 2025, according to OAG’s latest African aviation data⁠.

That represented an increase of 125,392 seats and made Air Peace the fastest-growing airline among the continent’s ten largest carriers by scheduled capacity.

Ethiopian Airlines retained first place with 2.09 million seats, an increase of 10%. Safair ranked second with 1.08 million, followed by EgyptAir with approximately 891,000.

Royal Air Maroc placed fourth after growing 19.2%, while Air Algérie completed the top five.

Nigeria leads Africa’s aviation recovery

Air Peace’s expansion reflects a wider increase in Nigerian aviation capacity. Nigeria recorded 1.19 million scheduled seats during September, an increase of 37.4% from the previous year. That was the fastest rate among Africa’s ten largest country markets.

Domestic capacity increased even faster, rising 44.8% to 877,000 seats.

OAG connected the increase to currency reforms, an aircraft-leasing arrangement and renewed confidence among airlines serving Nigeria.

Foreign-currency shortages and the difficulty of repatriating ticket revenue had previously discouraged international airlines from expanding in the country. Nigerian carriers have faced their own problems obtaining aircraft, spare parts and dollar-denominated maintenance services.

The latest capacity figures suggest that some of those constraints are easing, although they do not establish that the underlying financial pressures have disappeared.

Lagos was also the fastest-growing airport among Africa’s ten busiest, with seat capacity increasing 24.1% to approximately 470,000.

Ethiopian remains far ahead

Air Peace’s growth has not placed it close to Ethiopian Airlines in absolute scale. Ethiopian offered almost six times as many seats and continues to operate Africa’s most extensive international network.

Air Peace instead returned at number ten, behind airlines including Royal Air Maroc, Air Algérie, Airlink, Ryanair, Emirates and Air Cairo.

Air Cairo and Air Peace entered the top ten during September, while Transavia France and Kenya Airways dropped out.

Across the continent, airlines scheduled 25.8 million seats, up 9.4% from September 2025. International services represented 78% of total capacity, while low-cost carriers expanded faster than conventional airlines.

Scheduled seats show how much capacity an airline intends to place on the market. They do not show how many passengers actually travelled, whether flights operated as scheduled or whether the airline made money. (Business Insider Africa)