Nigeria’s aviation industry recorded notable operational milestones in 2025, but persistent structural constraints weighed heavily on its growth and competitiveness.
Despite reform efforts by Festus Keyamo, minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, systemic challenges limited the sector’s ability to achieve sustainable expansion and fiscal stability.
Multiple taxation, policy inconsistencies and infrastructure gaps remained dominant pressures on indigenous airlines, leaving them disadvantaged compared with peers across the continent. These headwinds also translated into rising costs for passengers, even as key input prices showed signs of easing.
One clear illustration of this disconnect is the continued rise in domestic airfares. This pricing anomaly persists despite verifiable findings by BusinessDay confirming a steady reduction in the ex-depot cost of aviation fuel throughout the nation.
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Last year, BusinessDay reported that Dangote Petroleum Refinery reduced the prices of diesel and aviation fuel to N940 and N1000 per litre. Passengers anticipated that this would impact ticket prices, but it didn’t.
BusinessDay’s findings show that aviation fuel accounts for 45 percent of operating costs; labour, 17 percent; aircraft rent and ownership, 8.5 percent; non-aircraft rents and ownership, 7 percent; professional services, 4.5 percent; landing fees, 2 percent; food and beverage, 1.5 percent; maintenance materials, 13 percent, and transport-related, 1.5 percent.
Despite this cost structure, a one-hour one-way economy ticket that averaged about N70,000 two years ago now sells for roughly N150,000. Fares have climbed to between N350,000 and N500,000 at Christmas, with airlines citing high operating costs and shrinking fleets.
Exorbitant fares on secondary airports
Passengers travelling from Lagos to secondary airports such as Ilorin, Akure, Anambra, Benin, Katsina, Sokoto, Ibadan and Yola faced particularly high fares due to limited competition.
BusinessDay checks show that only a handful of airlines operate on many of these routes, enabling operators to set prices largely at will.
Airlines argue that low passenger traffic makes such routes unprofitable, but industry stakeholders insist that increased competition would lower fares and stimulate demand.
Absence of transit hubs
Nigeria’s international airports still lack functional transit hubs where connecting passengers can wait without passing through immigration and customs. This deficiency has constrained passenger growth, even as infrastructure upgrades have been carried out at several airports. Since 2021, passenger traffic has stagnated between 13 million and 16 million annually, pointing to limited growth potential under current conditions.
Brain drain and manpower issues
With aviation schools still producing hundreds of graduates each year, the Nigerian aviation sector’s inability to absorb these professionals has led to a brain drain as many seek opportunities abroad.
“The aviation industry is currently witnessing a drop in aircraft availability for operators to use. The lack of available aircraft is because several planes are due for heavy maintenance. This is placing many pilots and aircraft maintenance engineers out of employment as operators will not keep employees that cost them a lot of overhead,” Sheri Ayuba Kyari, head of Administration and Human Resources at 7Star Global Hangar Ltd, a company with focus on aircraft maintenance in Nigeria and other parts of Western Africa told BusinessDay.
Multiple taxations
Nigerian air passengers continue to grapple with increased financial burdens due to a variety of taxes, fees, and charge structures imposed by governments worldwide.
The most recent is the introduction of an extra $11.5 charge per ticket from December 1, 2025, by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority of Nigeria (NCAA).
Ticket sales in dollars
Some international carriers sell their flight tickets in dollars, which negates the rules and continues to put pressure on the naira and foreign exchange (FX) market.
BusinessDay’s findings show that in 2025, three airlines sold ticket sales in dollars.
The National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA) called on the federal government through the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to stop foreign airlines from selling air tickets in foreign currencies.
Yinka Folami, president of NANTA, decried the practice by some foreign airlines, describing it as anti-trade, disrespectful, and harmful to the nation’s aviation industry.
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Poor airport infrastructure
Many Nigerian airports suffered from outdated infrastructure, including dilapidated runways, inadequate terminal space, and poorly maintained equipment and navigational facilities.
Despite the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) commissioning the Hazard Control Equipment to tackle the menace of bird strikes at airports across the country, airlines continued to record bird strikes, disrupting their operations.
Also, the absence of the automated bridges saw airlines consistently spend millions of naira annually just to tow their aircraft into the aerobridge, a point to disembark passengers after landing.
Falling passenger numbers, aircraft shortages
NCAA data show that domestic passenger traffic declined in 2024, falling to 11.55 million from 12.05 million in 2023, which was an over 10 percent drop. The decline reflects broader challenges, including aircraft shortages caused by high maintenance costs and foreign exchange scarcity.
Six years ago, about 10 domestic airlines operated more than 120 aircraft. By last year, NCAA data showed that domestic operators had 91 aircraft, including those undergoing maintenance, underscoring the scale of fleet reduction.
Successes
Despite the headwinds, several reforms and partnerships offered glimpses of progress. Domestic airlines began investing in Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facilities, driven by investor interest and expectations of foreign exchange earnings. Nigeria’s removal from the global aviation blacklist, an improved safety rating of 75.5 percent, and the domestication of the Cape Town Convention also improved access to dry lease aircraft.
United Nigeria Airlines signed a memorandum of understanding with Canada-based Cronos Aviation to build an MRO facility in Nigeria and pursue a regional codeshare arrangement. Emirates entered an interline agreement with Air Peace to enhance connectivity, while Sierra Leone’s new flag carrier partnered with Nigeria’s Xejet for technical support.
Kenya Airways has also expressed interest in collaborating with Nigerian airlines.
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State governments are increasingly partnering with airlines to ease access to funding and guarantees, leveraging their stronger credit profiles to support aircraft acquisition, maintenance and insurance obligations.
Conclusion
For Nigeria’s aviation sector to move beyond stagnation and realise its ambition of becoming a regional hub, industry players say that reforms go beyond promises. Beyond policy announcements, sustained fiscal relief, modern infrastructure and regulatory stability will be required to unlock the industry’s full potential and drive competitive growth, they add.
