By Oladele Eniola

The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has disclosed that 2,791,591 passengers passed through the nation’s domestic airports in the first quarter of 2023.

This was disclosed in an executive summary released by the NCAA and sighted by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Lagos.

It indicates that, of the 2,791,591 passengers,  1,391,560 were inbound and 1,400,031 outbound.

Also, the summary indicated a passenger traffic of 870,776 on international airlines operations in the first quarter of the year.

The breakdown showed that while an inbound passenger traffic of 375,700 was recorded, outbound traffic was 495,076 on the international routes.

In the first quarter, 25 foreign airlines operated 3,073 flights on the international routes, while 11 domestic airlines operated 182,88 flights on domestic routes..

Also, 1,193 complaints were received from passengers by the NCAA, on delayed flights on international routes, with 24 complaints of cancellations and six of air returns.

On the domestic flights, 101,028 flights were delayed within the first three months, with 284  cancelled and 28 cases of air returns

The report indicates that 499 flights were delayed on foreign flights in January, with Air Peace topping the list with 53, followed by Asky with 45, Qatar Airways, 41 and British Airways, 33, amongst others.

In February, delayed flights were 325, with AWA recording 30, Ethiopian Airlines 33, Kenya Airways 11; while in March, 369 flights were delayed, with Qatar Airways recording 32, United Airline had 1 and Air Peace recorded 64.

There were seven cancelled flights in January, 13 in February and four in March.

A total number of 25 Air/ramp return flights were recorded in the first quarter of the year.

During the period under review,  NCAA received 27 complaints from the international operations and 45 on the domestic flights.

Nine cases were resolved on international flights, while 22 were resolved on domestic flights. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)