Nigeria held onto its position as Africa’s fifth-largest airline market in December 2025, with 1.16 million scheduled passenger seats across domestic and international routes.
Okay News reports that the ranking, based on OAG’s Monthly Airline Data Updates, places Nigeria behind Egypt (2.98 million seats), South Africa (2.60 million), Morocco (over 2.03 million), and Ethiopia (1.38 million).
However, Nigeria was the only top-10 market to see a decline, dropping 3.7 per cent year-on-year from 1.20 million seats.
Morocco and Tanzania led growth, with Morocco up over 13 per cent and Tanzania surging more than 20 per cent.
Algeria, Kenya, Tunisia, and Mauritius also expanded, underscoring a broader aviation rebound across the continent.
On the domestic front, Nigeria ranked second with 850,420 seats but suffered a steep 7.5 per cent fall from 919,400 the previous year—one of the sharpest contractions.
South Africa dominated domestically with 1.803 million seats, followed by gains in Kenya (456,500), Tanzania (415,130), and North African nations.
Cape Verde posted the fastest domestic growth at 33.7 per cent.
The capacity constraints in Nigeria stem from multiple factors: prolonged aircraft downtime due to overseas maintenance amid limited local MRO facilities, bird strikes, high financing costs, and restricted fleet expansion.
Although Nigeria’s removal from the Aviation Working Group watchlist in October 2024 has begun easing dry-lease access, only one airline had secured such an arrangement by year-end.
Carriers continue relying on expensive wet leases or outright purchases, impacting scheduling and costs.
Ongoing MRO initiatives by operators like Air Peace and Ibom Air aim to address these bottlenecks, but facilities remain under development.
As African aviation grows overall, Nigeria’s challenges highlight the need for accelerated investments in fleet, maintenance, and regulatory support to reclaim momentum.
