Air Peace has challenged the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority’s report on flight disruptions in August, arguing that the regulator underreported its operations and wrongly attributed delays to the airline.

The airline said it operated 2,564 flights during the month, compared with the 1,864 flights recorded in the NCAA’s monthly report. It added that only 391 of the delays recorded were linked to internal operational factors.

Air Peace disclosed this in a statement signed by its Chief Operating Officer, Oluwatoyin Olajide, on Thursday, in response to the NCAA report, which listed the airline as recording the highest number of flight disruptions among domestic carriers in August.

According to NCAA data, Air Peace recorded 1,864 flight disruptions in August, out of 7,961 disruptions reported collectively by domestic airlines.

However, Air Peace disputed the figures, saying they did not accurately reflect its operations. The airline argued that the exclusion of more than 700 flights from the NCAA’s data distorted its performance metrics.

“Air Peace operated a total of 2,564 flights in August 2026, as opposed to the 1,864 flights stated in the NCAA report.

“By omitting over 700 fully operational flights from the data pool, the NCAA’s calculations skew our actual performance metrics and artificially inflate the reported delay percentages,” the airline said.

The airline also questioned the timing and scope of the NCAA’s monthly reporting, raising concerns about the methodology used to compile the figures.

“Why did the NCAA start the monthly series with August rather than July, immediately following the publication of Q1 and Q2 on 31st of July?” it asked.

“It is indeed worrisome that there is still no equivalent monthly data located for July, yet the NCAA published unusually granular August airline delay data only 13 days after month-end,” it added.

Air Peace also faulted the report for failing to take into account the industrial action that disrupted its operations during the month.

“It is reasonable to suggest that the early release of the August publication should have been accompanied by disclosure that the month contained an extraordinary aviation-sector industrial disruption which significantly affected the airline’s operations,” the airline said.

It added that the “August 11th instigated Union disruptions of our operations lingered for over 14 days, leading to rescheduling, avoidable delays and cancellation of flights.”

The airline questioned why the regulator published the report without first providing details on the causes of the reported delays.

“Why was this report published rapidly without identifying the causes of the delays attributed to individual airlines instead of publishing wrong figures that could tarnish the reputation of the airline despite prevailing operational challenges?” Air Peace asked.

According to the airline, its internal review showed that only 391 of the delayed flights were attributable to factors within its control.

“An internal review of our August 2026 flight data performance analysis reveals that 391 flights, which is only 15% of the delays experienced during the month of August, were caused by internal factors.

“The rest of the delays experienced by Air Peace were caused by external factors, and we have the data to support this,” it said.

It said the internal delays were “largely as a result of technical issues resulting in unscheduled maintenance on our aircraft and fuel-related issues.”

Air Peace said airport congestion and air traffic were responsible for more than half of the delays caused by external factors.

“Heavy tarmac and traffic congestion accounted for more than 51% of the external delays we experienced.

“Aircraft were frequently held on the ground or in holding patterns due to infrastructure capacity limits,” the airline said.

The airline also cited bird strikes as another source of disruption, saying one of its aircraft was taken out of service after being struck by a bird in Abuja.

“One of our aircraft, 5N-BYG, was struck by a bird in Abuja, which damaged the inlet cowl beyond acceptable limits, costing us USD1.8M to fix the dent,” it said.

According to Air Peace, the aircraft operated at least eight sectors daily and carried about 1,000 passengers.

“Unfortunately, the aircraft was removed from flight operations for more than a week, resulting in huge disruptions, and only became serviceable after the inlet cowl was replaced,” the airline said.

It also attributed some of the delays to deficiencies in airport infrastructure.