Views Archives - Aviation metric

Part 1: Apologies for the Delay, Rethinking Culture of Late, Postponed, Cancelled Flights in Nigeria

Posted on September 14, 2026 by Wole Shadare

A peculiar occurrence in Nigerian aviation has become so commonplace it barely provokes outrage. Passengers arrive at the airport on time, check in, pass through security, and settle into the departure area. Then the announcement comes: the flight has been delayed. Then the announcement: “Apologies for the delay…” The delay can be short or long, with departure times shifting multiple times. Passengers often stop asking when the aircraft will depart and instead wonder whether it…

NAMA responds to alleged rot, ‘wasted’ ILS

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

The Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) notes with grave concern a newspaper report dated September 11, 2026, entitled “How NAMA Wasted N7.58bn on ILS for Lagos, Abuja Airports.” While the agency welcomes legitimate scrutiny of public expenditure, the report contains fundamental factual inaccuracies, technical misconceptions and allegations unsupported by procurement and operational records. The most fundamental error is the headline figure. The approved contract for the supply and installation of CAT III-capable Instrument Landing Systems (ILS)…

Nigeria Aviation: The Boiling Pot

Posted on September 13, 2026September 13, 2026 by Wole Shadare

A Public Relations Perspective on the Path to Global Competitiveness Nigeria’s aviation sector is a boiling pot. The heat is rising from every direction – multiple taxation, infrastructure decay, unpaid services, union agitation, policy inconsistency, reputational crises, and an operating environment that punishes even the most disciplined operator. For over three decades, I have watched this industry from the inside. I have seen airlines rise with promise and fall with ignominy. I have seen professionals…

The Banking Problem in African Skies

Posted on August 24, 2026 by Wole Shadare

There are industries in which money follows opportunity. Aviation is one of them. There are also industries in which the absence of appropriate financing prevents the opportunity from ever becoming a reality. African aviation belongs increasingly to the second category. The continent has people who want to travel, businesses that need to move, airports that want to expand, airlines that want to acquire aircraft, cargo operators that need equipment, maintenance companies that need facilities and…

IATA and Africa: What Have You Done for Me Lately?

Posted on August 17, 2026 by Wole Shadare

There is a particular question that every long-standing relationship eventually invites: What have you done for me lately? It is not necessarily always an accusation. Sometimes it is an invitation to take stock. Sometimes it is a demand for evidence. And sometimes it is simply the question asked by someone who has heard the promises for long enough and would now like to see the results. For African aviation, that question may reasonably be put to…

The full flight illusion: Why busy airlines can still lose money

Posted on August 10, 2026 by Wole Shadare

Every day, somewhere in the world, an aircraft departs with every seat occupied. The boarding gate is crowded. The departure lounge buzzes with activity. Families settle into their seats. Business travellers open their laptops. The cabin crew completes their safety demonstrations with reassuring professionalism. As the aircraft pushes back from the gate and heads towards the runway, everything appears exactly as it should. To the passenger looking through the terminal window, it is a picture…

The Tyranny of Operations

Posted on July 20, 2026 by Wole Shadare

A single delayed aircraft can trigger a chain reaction that extends far beyond the airport where the delay began. Within minutes, crews risk exceeding legal duty hours; maintenance schedules must be revised; airport slots reassigned; passenger connections missed; aircraft rotations disrupted; and recovery plans activated across multiple cities, sometimes even across multiple continents. One operational disturbance quickly becomes a network-wide challenge. Few industries demonstrate the interconnected nature of modern organisations more vividly than aviation. This…

Aviation Strike Threat: A Test of Leadership

Posted on July 12, 2026 by Wole Shadare

Institutions rarely fail dramatically. More often, they fail quietly A responsibility goes unattended. An office hesitates to act. Another institution, frustrated by the vacuum, steps into a role that was never meant to be its own. Before long, role confusion becomes a governance failure, which in turn becomes a general inconvenience to the public. The recent threat by aviation unions to take industrial action over the alleged non-remittance of statutory ticket sales charges by airlines…

Lagos Is Late to the Flying Club (Part II)

Posted on June 30, 2026 by Wole Shadare

How Lagos Should Arrive Airports, Airlines and the Future of Aviation in Africa’s Greatest City In the first part of this essay, I argued that Lagos has been somewhat tardy in joining the ranks of the flying clubs. Given that this vibrant city-state has historically led the way in innovation, commerce, governance, finance, entertainment, and infrastructure over the past half-century, its conspicuous absence from the recent surge in state aviation initiatives is indeed quite…

Lagos Is Late to the Flying Club (Part I)

Posted on June 22, 2026June 22, 2026 by Wole Shadare

There was a time in Nigeria when any new idea could be confidently attributed to Lagos, whether it had originated there, been perfected within its bounds, or was being scaled across the region. For many decades, Lagos was more than a mere state; it was a vibrant laboratory of innovation. It was where bold ideas were tested, refined, and ultimately transformed into models others eagerly sought to emulate. Lagos did not wait for the world,…

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