Air Peace, United Nigeria Top list of Airlines with Highest Flight Cancellations, Delays

• The NCAA said more domestic flights were operated in Q3 2025 than in Q3 2024
• The authority published the number of flights cancelled and delayed in the period
• United Nigeria Airlines and Max Air recorded the highest cancellation rates in Q3 2025

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Oluwatobi Odeyinka is a business editor at Legit.ng, covering energy, the money market, technology and macroeconomic trends in Nigeria.

The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has released its Q3 report showing the airlines with the highest number of flight delays and cancellations between July and September 2025.

According to the authority, United Nigeria and Max Air had the most flight cancellations, while Air Peace had the highest number of delays, in the third quarter (Q3) of the year.

The aviation regulator said it recorded a total of 765 domestic flight delays, a fair improvement when compared to 843 delayed flights during the same period in 2024.

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The report, which was released on Tuesday, compared airline performance between July and September 2025 with the same period in 2024, The Cable reported.

The report showed an overall improvement in flight operations across the industry despite increased passenger traffic.

Airlines with highest cancellation rates

United Nigeria Airlines: According to the NCAA, United Nigeria had a flight cancellation rate of 0.63%, a slight decline from 0.70% it had in 2024. It tops the list of domestic airlines that cancelled the most in the period reviewed.

Max Air: Max Air had a cancellation rate of 0.42%, down from 0.60% in the previous year.

Arik Air: It recorded a 0.30% cancellation rate during the period, marking a significant improvement from the 1.70% recorded in Q3 2024.

Air Peace also showed notable progress, with cancellations dropping sharply from 1.70% in 2024 to 0.09% in Q3 2025.

The data further showed that Aero Contractors maintained a cancellation rate of 0.30% in both periods, while Green Africa reduced its rate from 0.50% to 0.27%.

Airlines with lowest cancellation rates

On the other hand, Ibom Air improved performance by cutting cancellations from 0.80% in 2024 to 0.12% in 2025.

NG Eagle recorded a cancellation rate of 0.03% in Q3 2025, down from 0.10% in the previous year.

Overland Airways, Rano Air and Value Jet each recorded 0.03% cancellations during the period, improving on their respective figures from Q3 2024.

XEJet posted a cancellation rate of 0.12% in the quarter.

Flight operations rise

The NCAA report showed that a total of 17,731 domestic flights were operated between July and September 2025, compared to 15,989 flights in the same period of 2024.

The report also revealed that only 80 flights were cancelled in Q3 2025, a significant reduction from the 251 cancellations recorded a year earlier.

Airpeace tops flight delay list

On flight delays, the NCAA reported that Air Peace recorded the highest delay rate in Q3 2025 at 6.87%, although this was an improvement from the 8.07% recorded in Q3 2024.

Max Air followed with a delay rate of 3.75%, down from 4.11%, while United Nigeria Airlines recorded 3.42%, slightly lower than the 3.48% reported in the previous year.

Ibom Air reduced its delay rate from 1.68% to 1.23%, while Aero Contractors recorded a slight increase to 1.20% from 1.11%.

Arik Air’s delay rate rose to 3.00% in Q3 2025, compared to 0.96% in the same period of 2024.

Green Africa improved its delay performance, reducing delays from 0.33% to 0.15%, while NG Eagle recorded 0.39%, up from 0.24%.

Overland Airways cut its delay rate from 1.11% to 0.45%, while Rano Air recorded an increase from 0.54% to 1.74%.

Value Jet also improved, reducing delays from 1.62% to 0.93% while Umza Air and XEJet recorded delay rates of 0.24% and 1.62%, respectively, in Q3 2025.

NCAA issues warning to domestic airlines over flight delays

Legit.ng earlier reported that the NCAA issued a serious warning to domestic airlines notorious for flight delays and poor passenger care.

The aviation authority mentioned some of the airlines that often violate aviation rules, threatening to start imposing sanctions.

NCAA also said some airlines often fail to provide timely information during flight delays, and some do not even provide refreshments to passengers after hours of delays.