The 17 airports affected by the sunset operating restrictions include Akure Airport in Ondo State, Ibadan Airport in Oyo State, Ilorin Airport in Kwara State, Maiduguri Airport in Borno State, Calabar Airport in Cross River State, Makurdi Airport in Benue State, Minna Airport in Niger State, Osubi Airport in Warri, Delta State, Sokoto Airport, Yola Airport in Adamawa State, Bauchi Airport, Gombe Airport, Dutse Airport in Jigawa State, Kebbi Airport, Yakubu Gowon Airport in Jos, Plateau State, Katsina Airport and Anambra International Cargo Airport.\n<\/p>\n
Sunset restrictions squeeze airline schedules<\/h3>\n
Findings by BusinessDay showed that the operating-hour restrictions at the affected airports are compounded by gaps in the infrastructure required to support night-time operations.\n<\/p>\n
It was discovered that there were deficiencies in some key facilities, including functional runway edge lights, threshold lighting and rotating beacons, as well as weaknesses in Communication, Navigation and Surveillance (CNS) equipment.\n<\/p>\n
Further findings by BusinessDay showed that some of the airports have unreliable Instrument Landing Systems (ILS), inadequate primary and backup power infrastructure, and outdated automated weather-reporting systems.\n<\/p>\n
The operating restrictions have raised concerns among airline operators about the commercial implications of limited flight windows, particularly during the Yuletide season when passenger demand typically increases.<\/p>\n
Corroborating this, Adedayo Olawuyi, chief commercial officer of United Nigeria Airlines, said restricted operating hours congest airline schedules and reduce the number of block hours carriers can operate.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cOur schedules during the day are congested because airlines are forced to cram all their flights into the tight window between 6:00 AM and 6:00 PM, reducing the total number of block hours that can be operated and leading to inevitable losses,\u201d Olawuyi stated.\n<\/p>\n
He said early-morning weather disruptions at major airports such as Lagos and Abuja could have a cascading effect on subsequent flights to airports with restricted operating hours.\n<\/p>\n
A three-hour morning delay, he explained, could disrupt evening flights to such destinations, potentially resulting in cancellations, passenger rebooking and adjustments to schedules for subsequent days.\n<\/p>\n
Read also:\u00a0Okpebholo signs deal with China Express Airline for take-off of Edo Air<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Olawuyi said the situation was particularly challenging for airlines operating leased aircraft because they could struggle to meet contractual minimum guaranteed block hours while remaining liable for payment for unused hours.\n<\/p>\n He lamented, \u201cIf an aircraft is on a wet or dry lease, it becomes extremely difficult for the airline to achieve the contractual minimum guaranteed block hours. Yet, the carrier must still pay for those unflown hours under the lease agreement. Ultimately, these operational limits make route profitability a persistent challenge for domestic operators.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Industry stakeholders stressed that infrastructure deficiencies and shortages of specialised personnel also constrain efforts to extend operating hours at secondary airports.\n<\/p>\n According to them, critical infrastructure requirements for night operations include functional runway lighting, threshold illumination, appropriate navigation and communication systems, reliable power supply and adequate weather-reporting facilities.\n<\/p>\n Samuel Caulcrick, former rector of the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), identified shortages of air traffic controllers (ATCs) and specialised navigation engineers at the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) as major obstacles to extending operations at some airports.<\/p>\n \u201cThe severe shortfall of ATCs and technical personnel remains the single biggest bottleneck preventing the country\u2019s secondary sunset airports from scaling into 24-hour operations,\u201d Caulcrick explained.\n<\/p>\n He said improvements in physical infrastructure, including solar-powered airfield lighting deployed at facilities such as Ibadan, Maiduguri and Sokoto, could reduce infrastructure costs but would not by themselves guarantee extended operations without the personnel required to manage air traffic safely.\n<\/p>\n Caulcrick suggested that NAMA could consider temporary staff redeployment during periods of increased travel demand.\n<\/p>\n He proposed shifting personnel to high-demand airports in the South-East during the Christmas travel period and redistributing staff to northern airports during major Muslim holidays.\n<\/p>\n Read also:\u00a0United Nigeria Airlines closes first tranche of N100bn CP programme<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Such arrangements, he argued, could help aviation authorities accommodate seasonal traffic without requiring permanent staffing increases at every airport.\n<\/p>\n However, the economics of airport operations present another challenge.\n<\/p>\n John Ojikutu, aviation security expert and chief executive officer of Centurion Aviation Security and Safety Consult, argued that passenger traffic at some secondary airports may not justify the cost of maintaining round-the-clock operations.\n<\/p>\n \u201cThe commercial air and passenger traffic figures at these secondary airports, outside of Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Kano, and Enugu, simply do not justify round-the-clock operations,\u201d Ojikutu noted.\n<\/p>\n He explained that airlines could formally request extended operating hours for particular flights, including seasonal services, but such arrangements would require additional funding for aviation services.<\/p>\n \u201cThe cost of an operational extension does not go to the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) alone for airport terminal facilities; it must necessarily cover the extended Air Traffic Control and navigational services of NAMA as well,\u201d he stated.\n<\/p>\n This means airlines seeking longer operating hours must consider not only the additional revenue from potential flights but also the costs of providing the personnel and services required to support them.\n<\/p>\n Seyi Adewale, chief executive officer of Mainstream Cargo Limited, said holiday travel demand was often uneven between outbound and inbound routes, creating difficulties for airlines seeking to maximise aircraft utilisation.\n<\/p>\n Adewale noted, \u201cThe structural limitation of Yuletide traffic is that airfares for both inbound and outbound sectors are effectively priced on a one-way demand curve.\n<\/p>\n Read also:\u00a0NCAA probes airline over unventilated aircraft as passenger suffers heat-induced bleeding<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cAirlines experience a massive outbound influx at the start of the holidays and a massive exodus at the end. This means aircraft fly packed in one direction and return largely empty, with the reverse pattern occurring when the holiday ends.\u201d\n<\/p>\n He argued that airlines must consider these passenger-flow patterns when deciding whether additional operating hours would be commercially worthwhile.\n<\/p>\n Under these market conditions, extending airport operating hours may not automatically translate into higher profits, particularly where additional flights require airlines to bear the cost of extended air traffic control, navigation and airport services.\n<\/p>\n Adewale said airlines and other stakeholders could explore joint funding arrangements, state-sponsored route subsidies or individual carrier investments in extended operations on commercially attractive routes.\n<\/p>\n \u201cGiven these market realities, a fundamental commercial question arises: can airlines justify co-funding night-time operational extensions, either through joint carrier pools, state-sponsored route subsidies, or by individual airlines leveraging high-yield routes?<\/p>\n \u201cUntil the industry resolves these infrastructure and commercial funding questions, domestic carriers will continue to leave significant Yuletide revenues on the table,\u201d Adewale concluded.\n<\/p>\n Ebere Ngene, business development manager at Enugu Air, also identified reduced aircraft utilisation, lost peak-hour revenue and higher operating costs as major consequences of daylight-only operations.\n<\/p>\n \u201cMost profitable flights in our domestic markets are often early morning departures (6 am-8 am) and evening departures (6 pm-10 pm). Also preferred by business travellers,\u201d Ngene told BusinessDay.\n<\/p>\n She said restrictions at airports that effectively stop operations around 6 pm to 6:30 pm prevent airlines from exploiting evening demand, potentially pushing passengers towards road transport or competing airports.\n<\/p>\n Read also:\u00a0Airlines expanded fleets fail to ground Nigeria\u2019s flight delays<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThis implies that airlines lose evening frequencies, which is a potential revenue leak to road transport or competing airports,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n Ngene said an aircraft that could ideally operate for 10 to 13 block hours daily may be restricted to seven to nine hours, reducing fleet productivity and limiting airlines\u2019 ability to maximise revenue.\n<\/p>\n The impact becomes more pronounced during festive periods when demand frequently exceeds available seats.\n<\/p>\n \u201cIf evening flights cannot be scheduled, some passengers will remain unaccommodated, airlines miss opportunities to add extra sections and yield becomes constrained,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n Ngene added that lower aircraft utilisation increases operating costs per seat because expenses such as aircraft leases, insurance, crew salaries and maintenance reserves remain largely fixed.<\/p>\n \u201cHence, when daily utilisation falls, these costs spread across fewer flights. The result is that cost per Available Seat Kilometre (CASK) increases while route margins deteriorate,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n Ngene also highlighted the difficulties airlines face in recovering from weather-related disruptions, particularly during the harmattan season, when delayed flights may arrive after sunset and require diversion.\n<\/p>\n \u201cThe implication is that passenger compensation and hotel expenses increase, and aircraft positioning costs rise,\u201d she noted.<\/p>\n Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha is the Aviation Correspondent at BusinessDay Media Limited, publishers of BusinessDay Newspapers.
Source: <\/p>\n Nigeria\u2019s domestic airlines are losing potential revenue during the peak festive travel season, as restricted operating hours at 17 airports limit flight scheduling, reduce aircraft utilisation and constrain their capacity… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10568,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Infrastructural gaps hamper night operations<\/h3>\n
Cost of extended operations raises commercial questions<\/h3>\n
Related News<\/h4>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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\nShe is also the Deputy Editor, BusinessDay Weekender Magazine, the Saturday Weekend edition of BusinessDay.
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\nShe holds a BSC in Mass Communication from the prestigious University of Nigeria, Nsukka and a Masters degree in Marketing at the University of Lagos.
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\nAs the lead writer on the aviation desk, Ifeoma is responsible and in charge of the three weekly aviation and travel pages in BusinessDay and BDSunday. She also overseas and edits all pages of BusinessDay Saturday Weekender.
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\nShe has written various investigative, features and news stories in aviation and business related issues and has been severally nominated for award in the category of Aviation Writer of the Year by the Nigeria Media Nite-Out awards; one of the Nigeria\u2019s most prestigious media awards ceremonies.
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\nIfeoma is a one-time winner of the
\nprestigious Nigeria Media Merit Award under the ‘Aviation Writer of the Year’ Category.
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\nShe is the 2025 Eloy Award winner under the Print Media Journalist category.
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\nShe has undergone several journalism trainings by various prestigious organisations.
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\nIfeoma is also a fellow of the Female Reporters Leadership Fellowship of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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