FEATURES Archives - Aviation metric

African airlines trapped in uncomfortable expansion cycle

Posted on August 25, 2026August 25, 2026 by Wole Shadare

African carriers cannot achieve viable economies of scale without massive fleet modernisation and cross-border expansion, yet they cannot afford aircraft or open skies without the very scale they lack, writes WOLE SHADARE For decades, the tarmac of African aviation has been littered with the ghosts of ambitious carriers that soared high, burned through capital furiously, and vanished into thin air. From the historic demise of multinational icons like Air Afrique to the perennial reorganisations of national…

Dangerous Game: Overwritten cockpit recorders, threat to air safety

Posted on August 18, 2026August 18, 2026 by Wole Shadare

The ‘overwriting’ of flight data recorder (FDR) is an insidious operational vulnerability that has continued to compromise global aviation safety, writes WOLE SHADARE In the delicate architecture of modern commercial aviation, trust is anchored to a small, brightly painted orange cylinder buried in the tail section of an aircraft: the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR). For decades, this crash-survivable device, colloquially called the black box, has served as the ultimate arbiter of truth. It captures ambient sounds,…

Leaking bucket: Automation failure, unremitted billions shadow NCAA, NAMA war

Posted on August 12, 2026August 12, 2026 by Wole Shadare

The current battle before lawmakers over amending the 5% Ticket Sales Charge (TSC) and Cargo Sales Charge (CSC) sharing formula pits two agencies squabbling over a shrinking slice of an uncollected pie, writes WOLE SHADARE Nigeria’s aviation sector is locked in a high-stakes fiscal staring contest. A quiet yet fierce proxy war erupted between two key sister agencies, the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and the nation’s Air Navigation Service Provider (ANSP), the Nigerian Airspace…

Shrinking Pie: The dangerous economics of Nigerian airlines

Posted on August 5, 2026 by Wole Shadare

While multi-airline competition theoretically benefits consumers, the sheer volume of operating certificates in a capital-constrained environment creates severe market distortions. WOLE SHADARE x-rays the yield dilution and hyper-competition crisis facing Nigeria’s domestic carriers The rapid expansion of Nigeria’s domestic aviation sector, marked by a growing list of private startups and sub-national state carriers, is colliding directly with macroeconomic realities. The continuous entry of new domestic carriers into Nigeria’s air transport market presents an economic anomaly. While open-market…

Chaos to Order: Nigeria Overhauls Airport Rules After 21 Years

Posted on July 28, 2026 by Wole Shadare

For an industry long troubled by terminal chaos, unauthorised airside access, physical assaults on airline staff, and pervasive touting, the updated regulatory framework offers a decisive playbook to sanitise Nigeria’s air transport gateways, writes WOLE SHADARE Nigerian airports have frequently made headlines for the wrong reasons: irate passengers destroying check-in counters over flight delays, touts soliciting unvetted transport services inside arrival halls, and unauthorised personnel breaching restricted airside zones. For more than two decades, managing terminal…

Nigeria’s aviation market faces passenger traffic erosion

Posted on July 21, 2026 by Wole Shadare

Nigeria’s domestic passenger traffic is depleting. The segment experienced consecutive contractions between 2022 and 2024, shrinking the domestic market by nearly two million passengers within three years, writes WOLE SHADARE For over a decade, Nigeria’s domestic aviation sector operated on a simple, predictable trajectory: despite infrastructural hiccups, passenger volumes grew year on year. Terminals were packed, peak hours were chaotic, and securing a flight ticket during the festive season required weeks of strategic planning. Today,…

Tectonic Shift: The 40-40 NAMA, NCAA revenue split dispute

Posted on July 14, 2026July 14, 2026 by Wole Shadare

What appears on the surface to be a petty bureaucratic turf war is, in reality, a symptom of a deeper, structural financing crisis, writes WOLE SHADARE Nigeria’s aviation sector is currently locked in a high-stakes, fiscal staring contest. A fierce proxy war has erupted between two sister agencies—the apex regulator, the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), and the nation’s Air Navigation Service Provider (ANSP), the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA). At the centre of this multi-billion-naira storm…

The deepening dilemma of Nigeria’s aviation funding

Posted on July 7, 2026 by Wole Shadare

In the high-stakes world of aviation, safety margins are rarely compromised by a single failure; they erode slowly under the weight of systemic neglect. Right now, the financial crisis rocking the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) exposes a complex industry dilemma, writes WOLE SHADARE The financial crisis rocking the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) has taken a dramatic turn, with the agency’s unions warning of total operational insolvency as domestic debt hits ₦34.69 billion and foreign…

Nigeria’s aviation future: Collaboration over competition

Posted on June 30, 2026 by Wole Shadare

The sector is witnessing a broader awakening across the industry. Airlines are realising that regional and international expansion requires a massive scale that cannot be achieved alone. Carriers are still sharply divided against what may be a game-changer for them, writes WOLE SHADARE For decades, the tarmac of Nigerian aviation has been littered with the ghosts of airlines that flew high, burned fast, and vanished into thin air. From the nostalgic eras of Okada Air,…

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