A total of 4,353 baggage belonging to passengers on International flights to and from Nigeria have been confirmed missing between January 2024 and December 2024, a report has shown.
Also, passenger traffic has dropped by 1.5% from 15.89 million in 2023 to 15.66 million in 2024.
These were contained in the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) Executive Summary on International and Domestic Flight Operations from January-December 2024.
According to the data made available to LEADERSHIP, there are more missing or delayed baggage recorded among international airlines than domestic carriers.
According to the report, about 26 of the 30 international airlines recorded 47,493 missing or delayed luggage within the period, while 10 out of the 15 domestic airlines recorded 430 missing or delayed baggage in 2024.
However, 43,569 of the missing or delayed baggage were later found, while the remaining 4,353 baggage was lost within the period, as indicated by the report.
Among the international carriers, 43,140 baggage were found, while the domestic airlines recorded 429 baggage recoveries within the period, and only one was unaccounted for.
The breakdown of the statistics indicated that Air France led the pack among the international airlines with 5,097 missing/delayed baggage, while KLM was second with 4,696 missing/delayed baggage and Egypt Air placed third with 4,462 missing/delayed baggage.
Other airlines with missing/delayed baggage within the year under review were Royal Air Maroc, 3,999; British Airways, 3,737; Kenya Airways, 3,122; Virgin Atlantic, 2, 942; Delta Airlines, 2,321; Air Cote d’Ivoire, 1,723; Ethiopian Airlines, 1,197; ASKY Airlines, 1,239; African Word Airlines (AWA), 670; Air Peace, 309 and Emirates Airlines with 79 missing/delayed baggage within the period. Also, airlines like Qatar Airways had 2,090 delayed/missing baggage; Rwanda Air, 943; Saudi Air, 13; South African Airways, 259; TAAG Angola, 1,349; Turkish Airline, 2,835; Uganda Air, 487, and United Airlines from the United States, 1,130.
However, Cronos Airlines, Overland Airways, Ibom Air and Value Jet Airlines, all recorded zero missing/delayed baggage in their international/regional operations within the period.
Meanwhile, the total air passengers for local and foreign – inbound and outboard – declined to 15,655,273 in 2024 from 15.8 million passengers in 2023.
This decline represents a 1.5% drop in the passenger traffic volume between 2023 and 2024.
It was gathered that on the international scene, the sector recorded a total of 4,135,830 inbound and outbound passengers.
For the domestic scene, the nation’s 15 scheduled operators recorded 11,549,443 passengers.
A further breakdown showed that for the inbound passengers on the international scene, Nigeria recorded 2,018,948, while the outbound was 2,116,882.
The statistics indicated that the country, just like in the last three years, had continued to record more outbound on the international scene than inbound.
This time around, the outbound passengers were 97,934 more than the inbound. Some had earlier attributed this to the Japa syndrome among Nigerians, especially the youth.
A further breakdown revealed that Qatar Airways had the highest number of passengers with 531,086 as inbound and outbound, at 257,716 and 273,370, respectively, followed by Ethiopian Airlines with 460,171 passengers with 224,363 and 235,808 as inbound and outbound passengers, respectively, within the period.
Others were British Airways with 320,643 inbound and outbound passengers.
African World Airlines, 83,513; Air Cote d’Ivoire, 122,535; Air France, 254,054; Air Peace, 247,893; Asky Airlines; 172,523; Cronos, 4,209; Delta Airlines, 160,399 and Egypt Air had 215 inbound and outbound passengers in 2024.
Also, Egypt Air had 27,628 as inbound and outside passengers; Emirates Airlines, 460,171; Ibom Air, 26,364; Kenya Airways, 115,426; KLM, 158,321; Lufthansa Airlines, 248,617; Max Air, 9,998; Middle East Airlines, 43,709; Overland Airways, 288 and Neon Airlines with 668 inbound and outbound passengers.
Others are Royal Air Maroc with 132,654 inbound and outbound passengers; Rwand Air, 90,367; Saudi Air, 68,627; South African Airways, 52,767; TAAG Angola, 28,353; Turkish Airline, 239,371; Uganda Air, 27,256; United Airlines, 47,340; Value Jet, 480, and Virgin Atlantic Airways with 218,254 inbound and outbound passengers in 2024.
The total number of passengers recorded as inbound and outbound passengers in the past year totalled 4,135,830 air travellers.
On the domestic scene, which recorded a total of 11 549,443 passengers, the inbound air travellers were 5,727,700, while the outbound passengers were 5,821,743.
As expected, Air Peace led the pack among the domestic airline operators with a combined figure of 3,114,040 passengers moved within the year under review.
Its breakdown shows that the airline had 1,544,492 inbound passengers and an additional 1,569,548 outbound passengers in the past year, while the troubled Arik Air was second in passenger traffic with a combined figure of 2,239,176.
A further breakdown indicated that Aero Contractors had a combined figure of 964,900 passengers; Azman Air, 26,112; the suspended Dana Air, 299,040; Green Africa, 389,399; Ibom Air, 1,323,974 and Max Air, 915,918.
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