Air Peace has rejected the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority’s (NCAA) flight disruption report for August 2026, alleging that it contained inaccuracies in the airline’s flight volume and failed to adequately distinguish between delays caused by the carrier and those resulting from external factors.

In a statement signed by its Chief Operating Officer, Mrs Toyin Olajide, Air Peace said it operated 2,564 flights during August, rather than the 1,864 flights it said were attributed to the airline in the NCAA report.

The airline argued that excluding more than 700 flights from the calculation distorted its operational performance and inflated the proportion of flights reported as delayed.

“By omitting over 700 fully operational flights from the data pool, the NCAA’s calculations skew our actual performance metrics and artificially inflated the reported delay percentages,” the airline said.

Air Peace also questioned why the NCAA began its monthly reporting series with August rather than July, following the publication of first- and second-quarter data on July 31.

It said it was concerned that detailed August figures were released only 13 days after the end of the month without, in its view, sufficient context about extraordinary disruptions affecting aviation operations during the period.

According to the airline, its internal review of August operations showed that 391 flights, representing 15 per cent of the month’s flights, experienced delays attributable to internal factors.

“From the above, only 391 flights should be attributed to Air Peace which represents 15% of the delay in that month,” the statement said.

Air Peace identified technical issues requiring unscheduled maintenance and fuel-related problems among the internal factors that affected its operations.

It, however, maintained that most disruptions experienced by its passengers were caused by factors outside its control, including airport congestion, bird strikes, inadequate airport facilities, adverse weather, union picketing and damage to an aircraft by a ground-handling company.

The airline said airport and traffic congestion accounted for more than 51 per cent of the external delays it recorded, with aircraft sometimes held on the ground or in holding patterns because of infrastructure capacity constraints.

It also cited a bird strike involving aircraft 5N-BYG in Abuja, which it said damaged the inlet cowl beyond acceptable limits and cost about $1.8 million to repair.

According to Air Peace, the affected aircraft ordinarily operates at least eight sectors daily and carries about 1,000 passengers. It said the aircraft was withdrawn from service for more than a week until the damaged component was replaced, resulting in significant disruption to its schedule.

The airline also pointed to inclement weather, saying mandatory safety holds and diversions during the rainy season created knock-on delays across its network.

“One flight diversion could result in almost three hours delay. How is the consequential delay Air Peace’s fault?” the statement said.

Air Peace further cited the August 11 picketing of its operations by aviation union members, saying the effects lasted for more than 14 days and resulted in rescheduling, delays and flight cancellations.

It also alleged that damage to one of its aircraft by a ground-handling company removed the aircraft from active operations for more than 14 days.

“The narrative that Air Peace is primarily responsible for these delays is completely false,” the airline said.

“The majority of the delays experienced by our passengers were driven by external factors and completely outside of our control.”

Air Peace said it had previously refrained from publicly detailing the factors behind the disruptions but decided to respond following the NCAA report.

“We have restrained ourselves from making these facts public before now but we have now been pushed beyond acceptable limits, hence the need to go public and state the facts the way they are,” it said.

The airline maintained that it had invested substantially in its fleet, crew availability, training and maintenance, while acknowledging that it would continue working to reduce delays caused by factors within its control.

It said airlines could not safely bypass airport congestion, inadequate infrastructure, sunset restrictions or adverse weather conditions.

Air Peace consequently urged the NCAA to review and audit its data collection methodology to ensure future reports accurately capture airline flight volumes, the causes of delays and the wider operating environment in Nigeria’s aviation sector. (Arise News)