Airline Reliability IndexQ2 2026
Nigeria’s airlines, ranked by the NCAA’s own delay numbers.
Every quarter the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority publishes how many flights each domestic airline operated, how many were delayed by more than one hour, and how many were cancelled. Ranked compiles the Q2 2026 report — 15 carriers, April–June 2026 — into a single league, ranked by the NCAA-reported share of each airline’s own flights delayed above one hour. The figures are the regulator’s, quoted verbatim; the ranking order is simply that published metric, worst-first.
Every figure from the NCAA report “EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF FLIGHT DISRUPTIONS FOR 2026( APRIL-JUNE)” (covering April–June 2026, domestic carriers only) — NCAA news page · full document (.docx). Posted on ncaa.gov.ng 31 July 2026; verified against the primary document on 3 August 2026.
The short answer
In April–June 2026, Nigerian domestic airlines operated 23,007 flights; 4,443 (19.31%) were delayed by more than one hour and 124 (0.54%) were cancelled, per the NCAA’s own report. The highest NCAA-reported delay rate was Arik Air (39.64%); the lowest was Umza Air (3.5%). All figures are the NCAA’s — Ranked does not measure or judge airline performance itself.
Flights delayed >1 hour
19.31%
4,443 flights
Flights operated
23,007
April–June 2026, domestic
Flights cancelled
0.54%
124 flights
Highest delay rate
Arik Air
39.64% of its flights
The league · ranked by NCAA-reported delay rate, worst-first
Delay rate = the airline’s flights delayed above one hour as a share of its own flights operated, exactly as printed in the NCAA’s Q2 2026 report. The arrow compares against the NCAA’s Q1 2026 report (methodology identical). A high delay rate on a small schedule (Arik Air flew 676 flights; Air Peace flew 4,588) is not the same thing as the most delays — the raw counts are on each card.
- 01Arik AirHighest delay rate39.64%delayed >1hr▴ 22.05 pts vs Q1 2026
Flights operated
676
Delayed >1hr
268
Cancelled
0
Cancel rate
0.00%
- 02United Nigeria29.36%delayed >1hr▴ 7.55 pts vs Q1 2026
Flights operated
3,972
Delayed >1hr
1,166
Cancelled
31
Cancel rate
0.78%
- 03Max Air28.95%delayed >1hr▴ 12.22 pts vs Q1 2026
Flights operated
912
Delayed >1hr
264
Cancelled
16
Cancel rate
1.75%
- 04Enugu Air25.94%delayed >1hrnot in the NCAA’s Q1 2026 report (first appears in Q2 2026)
Flights operated
2,390
Delayed >1hr
620
Cancelled
3
Cancel rate
0.13%
- 05Binani Air24.35%delayed >1hrnot in the NCAA’s Q1 2026 report (first appears in Q2 2026)
Flights operated
115
Delayed >1hr
28
Cancelled
1
Cancel rate
0.87%
- 06Air Peace22.82%delayed >1hr▴ 3.60 pts vs Q1 2026
Flights operated
4,588
Delayed >1hr
1,047
Cancelled
17
Cancel rate
0.37%
- 07Overland17.84%delayed >1hr▴ 2.56 pts vs Q1 2026
Flights operated
813
Delayed >1hr
145
Cancelled
6
Cancel rate
0.74%
- 08NG Eagle15.22%delayed >1hr▴ 8.19 pts vs Q1 2026
Flights operated
276
Delayed >1hr
42
Cancelled
3
Cancel rate
1.09%
- 09XEJet12.94%delayed >1hr▴ 1.64 pts vs Q1 2026
Flights operated
479
Delayed >1hr
62
Cancelled
0
Cancel rate
0.00%
- 10Ibom Air12.51%delayed >1hr▴ 6.63 pts vs Q1 2026
Flights operated
1,943
Delayed >1hr
243
Cancelled
8
Cancel rate
0.41%
- 11ValueJet11.15%delayed >1hr▴ 0.27 pts vs Q1 2026
Flights operated
2,350
Delayed >1hr
262
Cancelled
2
Cancel rate
0.09%
- 12Aero9.52%delayed >1hr▴ 2.97 pts vs Q1 2026
Flights operated
1,407
Delayed >1hr
134
Cancelled
7
Cancel rate
0.50%
- 13Green Africa7.65%delayed >1hr▴ 5.93 pts vs Q1 2026
Flights operated
523
Delayed >1hr
40
Cancelled
13
Cancel rate
2.49%
- 14Rano5.73%delayed >1hr▾ 2.56 pts vs Q1 2026
Flights operated
1,449
Delayed >1hr
83
Cancelled
15
Cancel rate
1.04%
- 15Umza AirLowest delay rate3.50%delayed >1hr▾ 5.96 pts vs Q1 2026
Flights operated
1,114
Delayed >1hr
39
Cancelled
2
Cancel rate
0.18%
Source for every figure above: NCAA, “EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF FLIGHT DISRUPTIONS FOR 2026( APRIL-JUNE)” (covering April–June 2026), detailed delayed-flights and cancelled-flights tables — primary document (.docx). Airline names reproduced exactly as the NCAA table prints them. Percentages are the NCAA’s own printed values.
Right of reply: airlines that believe any figure here misquotes the NCAA report can write to [email protected] — we will re-check against the primary document and correct any transcription error.
The previous quarter · Q1 2026
The NCAA’s Q1 2026 report covers 13 airlines (January–March 2026); Binani Air and Enugu Air do not appear in it — they first appear in the Q2 2026 report. Industry-wide: 22,291 flights operated, 3,144 delayed above one hour (14.1%), 128 cancelled (0.57%), 1,588,883 passengers carried, 260,025 affected by disruptions.
| Airline | Flights operated | Delayed >1hr | Delay rate | Cancelled | Cancel rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Air Peace | 4,672 | 898 | 19.22% | 18 | 0.39% |
| United Nigeria | 4,077 | 889 | 21.81% | 14 | 0.34% |
| ValueJet | 2,216 | 241 | 10.88% | 14 | 0.63% |
| Ibom Air | 2,211 | 130 | 5.88% | 12 | 0.54% |
| XEJet | 1,814 | 205 | 11.30% | 6 | 0.33% |
| Rano | 1,581 | 131 | 8.29% | 12 | 0.76% |
| Aero | 1,343 | 88 | 6.55% | 8 | 0.60% |
| Umza Air | 1,120 | 106 | 9.46% | 5 | 0.45% |
| Max Air | 1,004 | 168 | 16.73% | 13 | 1.29% |
| Arik Air | 790 | 139 | 17.59% | 2 | 0.25% |
| Overland | 746 | 114 | 15.28% | 23 | 3.08% |
| NG Eagle | 427 | 30 | 7.03% | 1 | 0.23% |
| Green Africa | 290 | 5 | 1.72% | 0 | 0.00% |
Source: NCAA, “EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF FLIGHT DISRUPTIONS FOR 2026( JANUARY-MARCH)” (covering January–March 2026) — NCAA news page · primary document (.docx). Posted on ncaa.gov.ng 31 July 2026; the Q1 airline flight counts sum exactly to the stated industry total of 22,291.
How the NCAA measures flight disruptions
The numbers, defined
- Delayed flight (above one hour)
- The NCAA’s column is headed “TOTAL DELAYED FLIGHTS (ABOVE 1HOUR)” — a delay is counted only when it exceeds one hour. The report does not break delays down by cause (weather, operational, or otherwise), so neither does this page.
- Delay rate %
- The airline’s delayed flights divided by its own flights operated, as printed by the NCAA. Cancellation rate is the same calculation for cancelled flights. The report’s combined figure is “TOTAL DISRUPTED FLIGHTS (A+B)” — delays plus cancellations — under the header “PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL DIISRUPTED FLIGHTS” [sic].
- Which NCAA tables this page uses
- The Q2 2026 document’s front summary table contradicts its own detailed tables: its per-airline flight counts sum to 15,503, not the stated 23,007. The detailed delayed-flights and cancelled-flights tables sum exactly to 23,007 and are internally consistent, so every per-airline figure here is transcribed from those detailed tables. The document also prints the passengers-affected total as both 369,786 and 369,586 in different tables — we quote the front table’s figure and disclose the discrepancy rather than pick silently.
- Why the index starts at Q1 2026
- Q3 2025 figures the NCAA released to press state no delay threshold and cannot be reconciled with the 2026 above-one-hour methodology (Air Peace: 6.87% in the Q3 2025 press figures vs 19–23% under the 2026 definition), and no primary Q3 2025 document exists on ncaa.gov.ng. No Q4 2025 per-airline report has been published anywhere we can find. Mixing incompatible series would produce false trends, so this index uses only the two 2026 primary documents.
- Why no complaints or refunds column?
- The NCAA’s 2026 quarterly Executive Summaries cover delays, cancellations, and passengers affected only — no per-airline complaints table is published. Rather than estimate, Ranked leaves it out. Passenger complaints go to the NCAA’s consumer protection directorate at cpd.ncaa.gov.ng.
- What Ranked does not do
- This page reports the regulator’s published record verbatim, ranked by the NCAA-reported delay rate. Ranked does not measure airline performance, does not adjust the NCAA’s figures, and does not rank airlines by its own judgment of quality or safety. A high delay rate in one quarter is one metric from one report — not a verdict on an airline.
Airlines not in the NCAA’s tables
Dana Air appears in neither 2026 quarterly table, so it is not listed here. Binani Air and Enugu Air first appear in the Q2 2026 report, so they have no Q1 2026 comparison. Where an airline is missing from the NCAA’s own table, this page says so rather than filling in a number.
Cadence: the NCAA’s disruption reports are quarterly in coverage but irregular in posting — both 2026 reports carry a 31 July 2026 date stamp on ncaa.gov.ng (a batch upload), and the documents themselves carry no certified release date, so we cite the web-posting date. This page is refreshed each release and was last verified against the primary documents on 3 August 2026. One further defect in the NCAA’s own Q2 2026 document, disclosed for completeness: XEJet’s passengers affected (13,216) exceeds its printed total passengers (11,736). For bookings, check the airline and the NCAA links above — a past quarter’s delay rate is not a prediction.