A report obtained has revealed that at least 189,133 flights were delayed in Nigeria in five years.
The report also indicated that 309,425 flights were operated out of Nigeria and within the country within the same period.
The report covered flights delayed between 2014 and 2018 by both local and international airlines.
According to the report, in 2014, international airlines delayed a total number of 4,715 flights out of Nigeria, 6,134 flights in 2015, 6,430 flights in 2016, 4,386 flights in 2017 and another 5,395 flights in 2018.
Within the five years period, international airlines had a total number of 27,050 flights delayed out of Nigeria.
Within the same period, domestic airlines delayed 32,925 flights in 2014, 30,911 flights delayed in 2015, 31,683 flights delayed in 2016, 20,214 delays in 2017 and 36,350 flights delayed in the just past year.
In all, domestic airlines had a total number of 162,083 flights delay in five years.
Further breakdown indicated that in 2014, a total number of 37,640 flights were delayed out of Nigeria and within the country among international and domestic carriers, 37,045 flights delayed in 2015, 38,113 flights delayed in 2016, 34,600 delays in 2017 and another 41,745 flights were delayed in 2018.
However, there were no reasons for the flights delayed out of Nigeria and within the country within the period, but it is clear that poor and obsolete infrastructure across the nation’s airports had contributed to flights delayed in various aerodromes in the country in the past years.
The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) that is saddle with the provision and maintenance of infrastructure across the country’s airports had failed in discharging this duty over the years, which had contributed to damages to equipment especially aircraft in most airports in the country.
Besides, the report revealed that a total number o 309,425 flights were operated in the past five years in Nigeria – 2014 to 2018.
The domestic airlines had the highest number of flights operated with 234,055, while the international airlines operated 75,370 flights within the period.
The breakdown showed that 2014 had the highest number of flight operations in recent times with 83,880 out of which domestic airlines operated 68,506 flights, while the other 15,374 flights were performed by the international carriers.
Besides, 2015 had the second-highest of flight operations within the period with 77,871 flights – domestic operators had 62,488 flights and international carriers had 15,383 within the same period.
This was followed by 2018 with a total number of flights at 75,463 with domestic having 59,818 and international operations stood at 15,645.
The other was 2016 with 70,147 flights – domestic had 54,682, while international airlines had 15,465 flights within the period.
The least flights operated in the past five years were in 2017 with only 61,822 flights.
The report indicated that domestic airlines had 48,319 within the period, while international carriers had 13,503 flights in the same period.
Another report obtained by our correspondent showed that a total number of 296 flights were cancelled in the first half of 2019 by both local and international airlines in Nigeria.
The report indicated that in the first half of 2019, 30 airlines operated into and out of Nigeria with 55 cancelled flights, while on the local scene, 241 flights were cancelled among the nine operating scheduled airlines.
According to the report, international airlines operated 7,640 flights between January and June 2019, while the domestic operators had 30, 043 flights within the period.
According to the document, a total number of 16,482 luggage were either declared missing or delayed luggage in the Nigerian airports in the first six months of the year.