The Chairman of United Nigeria Airlines, Prof. Obiora Okonkwo, said scarcity of aircraft is the biggest problem Nigerian carriers’ face.

He noted that the scarcity of aircraft was made possible by a backlog of aircraft that were supposed to have been delivered by the major aircraft makers, Boeing and Airbus but which were delayed as a result of Covid.

The problem is more pronounced with African airlines and especially Nigeria, which, although it has a robust aviation market, is currently hit by a dearth of aircraft with a lack of capacity to meet growing demand.

The global problem, which has hit Nigerian carriers the hardest, has led to a shortage of aircraft in the fleet of virtually all the airlines; this situation has affected the schedule integrity of many of the carriers. Airlines are indeed facing a severe supply chain crisis, which is expected to persist into 2026.

This crisis is impacting aircraft deliveries, raising costs, and potentially limiting growth within the industry. The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) understands the predicaments faced by the country’s airlines and recently advised Air Peace to cut down its schedules because of the depletion of aircraft in its fleet.

The airline’s five Embraer 195-E2 aircraft, acquired less than four years ago, are all grounded because of engine flaws from the manufacturer. Many aircraft belonging to the airline are said to have been ferried overseas and have no date of return to service.

This is not limited to Air Peace alone. Virtually all the airlines are bleeding but experts said that must not be an excuse for shoddy service delivery.

Speaking to the media when United Nigeria Airlines signed a new distribution agreement with Sabre Corporation at the weekend in an agreement that marks the airline’s first collaboration with a global distribution technology partner, enabling it to distribute its product via Sabre’s expansive global marketplace, I rate youths in Benue State yesterday staged a peaceful protest and blocked major highways linking the state at the Wurukum roundabout, to register their anger over the massacre of their people by invading armed herdsmen.

The protesters converged on the Wurukum food basket roundabout, Makurdi as early as 8 am, to demand action over the alleged killing on Saturday in Yelwata. They were later joined by a social media influencer, Martin Otse, also known as VeryDarkMan.

The demonstrators, dressed in black attire and carrying palm fronds and placards with various inscriptions, barricaded the ever-busy roads, disrupting vehicular movement and demanding immediate action from the government to end the bloodletting.

One of the placards with bold inscription read: “A Cry For Help, Stop Benue Killings.” They were later tear gassed by security personnel in their bid to disperse the crowd. A security helicopter was spotted in the town carrying aerial surveillance as the protest intensified.

There was tight security in Makurdi town as all security formations, the military, police, NSCDC, Immigration had stationed their personnel at strategic locations to forestall a breakdown of law and order. The angry youths had in the wee hours of the day, defied the state government’s directive banning the protest.

Governor Hyacinth Alia, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Tersoo Kula, said he acknowledged and shared in the grief and frustration caused by the recent security breaches and attacks on innocent communities by armed herdsmen, cautioned against any form of protest that could obstruct public peace, disrupt economic activities, or endanger lives and property.

He admonished the youths “to remain lawabiding and not allow themselves to be used by faceless individuals with ulterior motives. Intelligence available to us indicated that these protests may be exploited as a distraction for orchestrating further attacks on vulnerable communities.

He said that his administration was engaging with federal security agencies, traditional rulers, community leaders, and relevant stakeholders to strengthen security interventions and provide lasting solutions to the persistent attacks.

The crackdown on the protesters, allegedly by the state government, prompted a reaction of a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain, Chief Bemgba Iortyom, who condemned the act of exploding teargas cannisters against the protesters.

He said: “This act of unprovoked violence against the youths who were conducting themselves peacefully only amplifies the fact of Governor Alia’s lack of Obiora said: “The biggest challenge we have now is that there is a scarcity of aircraft worldwide. As you may have known from the backlog of COVID-19, coming out of the COVID-19 backlog, extended production time for new aircraft.”

He disclosed that the problem was equally compounded by the grounding of Boeing Max over technical issues and further worsened by the engine issue of Embraer E2.

“So with all those things, normally for us, it is only when the new aircraft are manufactured and delivered to the bigger operators or bigger lessors. They will now replace it with the old ones.

And then you have aircraft in the market. So those people who had signed off six years, seven years, aircraft leases that were supposed to expire last year, they extended it.