Domestic Airlines in Nigeria: List, Routes and Websites

This list starts from the regulator. Every month the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) publishes a table of domestic flight delays, and the table names each airline it counted. The one we used, for August, has fourteen airlines with flights in it. We then went to each airline’s own website for the cities it sells and how it takes bookings.

We could not find a plain list of passenger airlines on the NCAA’s website, so that table is the nearest thing to an official roll. It is also where the delay figures further down come from.

The airlines at a glance

The cities are the ones each airline’s booking form offered. For Overland and Umza they are from the airline’s destinations page. The two do not always agree: Air Peace’s destinations page also shows Akure, Calabar, Ilorin, Makurdi and Uyo, and Max Air’s shows Asaba, Benin, Owerri and Sokoto, none of which their booking forms offered. Trust the form.

Which airline flies where

These are the routes most of the airlines compete on, with every airline we found selling the pair on its booking form or naming it on its website.

A booking form sells some pairs as a connection through Lagos or Abuja, so look at the flight details before you pay. Umza Air and Green Africa appear in few rows because we could not read a route list for either. Umza names Abuja, Kano and Lagos as its hubs.

The airlines one by one

Aero Contractors

Formed in 1959 and flying scheduled services since 2000, by its own account. Every route runs from Lagos or Abuja. Book on the website or at its ticket offices, which the site lists with opening hours. Aero asks passengers to pay only through its own platforms or authorised agents.

Air Peace

The largest by a distance: 1,864 of the 7,961 flights in the NCAA’s table. All its domestic routes start or end in Lagos or Abuja. Book on the website, in its app, or at an airport or sales outlet. Its site warns of fake adverts in its name, so type the address yourself.

Arik Air

Six cities from Lagos, plus Abuja to Port Harcourt. Its home page still advertises Ilorin, Kano, Owerri, Yola and Ibadan, which the booking form does not sell. The site files its annual reports under “Arik Air Ltd (In Receivership)”. Book on arikair.com or its app. Arik says it has no connection with any other website.

Binani Air

The smallest name in the table, with 57 flights. It sells Lagos to Abuja, Kano and Yola, and Abuja to Yola. Book on the website, at its ticketing offices or through an agent.

Enugu Air

Owned by the Enugu State Government, with its hub at Akanu Ibiam International Airport. The NCAA gave it an Air Operator Certificate in March, and it is already third in the table by flights. Book on enuguairlines.ng. The similar address enuguair.com is not the airline’s.

Green Africa

It is in the NCAA’s table with 226 flights, so it is flying. Its website sits behind a human-verification check and would not load for us, so we could not confirm its cities at source. The copy of its pages in search results describes it as based in Lagos and names Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Benin and Akure. Confirm on greenafrica.com before you plan around it.

Ibom Air

Based at Victor Attah International Airport in Uyo. A short network: Uyo, Calabar and Port Harcourt, each to Lagos and Abuja. It publishes its own monthly on-time figures on its website. Book on ibomair.com, at its offices or at the airport ticket counter.

Max Air

A Kano airline whose northern routes run through Abuja: Bauchi, Birnin Kebbi, Katsina, Maiduguri and Yola are all sold from there. Bauchi matters if you are heading to Yankari, which is in Bauchi State and is covered in our page on game reserves in Nigeria. Book on maxair.com.ng or its app.

Overland Airways

Head office in Ikeja, with a fleet of turboprops and Embraer E175 jets. Its list includes Dutse and Minna, which no other airline in the table above has. Book on the website or at its airport offices. An unpaid booking is held for 30 minutes.

Rano Air

Operates from Abuja with Embraer 145 jets and covers the north: Kano, Kaduna, Bauchi, Gombe, Katsina, Maiduguri and Sokoto. It also sells Lagos to Warri. Book on ranoair.com, in its app, at its offices or through agents.

Umza Air

Began domestic flights in December 2024 with Dash 8 Q400 turboprops and is headquartered in Abuja. It lists fifteen cities, the most in the table above. It also has the lowest share of delayed flights in the NCAA’s table. Book on umzaair.com.

United Nigeria

Second by flights. Its routes all run from Lagos or Abuja, and the south-east and south-south are well covered. At a meeting in September the NCAA ordered it to improve its operations and stop adding routes beyond what its fleet can cover. The airline promised to settle pending refunds within 14 days. Book on flyunitednigeria.com.

ValueJet

Head office in Ikeja. It is the only airline here that sells Iperu. Fares come in four named bundles, and the baggage allowance differs between them. Book on flyvaluejet.com or its app.

XEJet

A small schedule: Abuja to Lagos, and Abuja to Gusau. It uses MMA2 in Lagos and the General Aviation Terminal in Abuja. Book on xejet.com.

How often each airline was late

The NCAA does not rank airlines. These are its own counts from its 2026 table for August. It publishes a new table every month, so look on its website for the newest. It treats a flight as delayed from 16 minutes late. The share column is our sum from its numbers.

Six flights in ten were delayed, though most of those by less than an hour. The column to read is the three-hour one, because that is the point where the NCAA’s rules let you ask for your money back. The table gives no causes and covers one month, so it is a snapshot. It says nothing about safety. The figures are on the NCAA’s website.

Names that no longer fly

Dana Air. In a statement of September 2024 the NCAA referred to the suspension of Dana Air’s operations and said passengers could use their Dana tickets on NG Eagle while cash refunds were being arranged. Dana is not in the NCAA’s table, and its website now shows an empty file listing.

NG Eagle. It is named in the table with no flights against it.

Azman Air. Not in the table. Its website is still up with a 2018 copyright line, and the booking form on it failed to load.

Med-View, FirstNation and Associated Aviation. None is in the table. Med-View’s old address now leads to an unrelated site, and FirstNation’s shows an “under construction” notice.

Allied Air. The earlier version of this page listed it as a passenger airline. By its own description it is a cargo carrier.

Fares and what you need to fly

No airline here publishes a fixed fare. The price appears on the booking form once you pick a route and a date. Umza Air and Enugu Air print “from” prices on their home pages, and those are starting points, not quotes.

For the ID each airline accepts, check-in deadlines, baggage allowances and what you are owed when a flight is late, see requirements for local flights in Nigeria.

Quick answers

How many domestic airlines are there in Nigeria?

Fourteen had scheduled passenger flights in the NCAA’s latest monthly table. A fifteenth, NG Eagle, is listed with none.

Which is the biggest domestic airline in Nigeria?

Air Peace, by flights: 1,864 in the month, ahead of United Nigeria on 1,231 and Enugu Air on 878.

Which airlines fly from Lagos to Abuja?

Twelve sell it: Aero, Air Peace, Arik Air, Binani Air, Enugu Air, Ibom Air, Max Air, Overland, Rano Air, United Nigeria, ValueJet and XEJet.

Is Dana Air still flying?

No. The NCAA’s 2024 statement describes its operations as suspended, and it is absent from the regulator’s latest table of domestic flights.

Which airline flies to Uyo?

Ibom Air sells Uyo from Lagos and Abuja. Air Peace’s website has a Uyo page, but its booking form did not offer the city.