Nigeria now occupies the third position in the top 10 countries’ list with the highest percentage of grounded fleets.
The United Kingdom leads the chart with 69.66 per cent, according to data released by ch-aviation on Friday, a website invested in the database of airlines in the world.
The report titled ‘The worldwide active fleet is decreasing in February’ said the UK has a total of 758 aircraft with only 230 active and 528 grounded.
The next on the list is Hong Kong with a total of 222 aircraft; 151 of the aircraft is grounded while only 71 is active. It’s grounded fleet is 68.02 per cent
Nigeria is third on the list with 63.81 per cent of grounded planes. With 67 out of a total of 105 planes grounded, the country only has 38 active planes.
Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika in a recent event observed that Nigeria was topping the list of countries with unserviced aircraft.
He said, “Nigeria is top of the list of 10 countries utilising unserviced aircraft with a staggering figure of 69.23 per cent in 2021.
“Several aircraft stay on the ground. The choice of equipment speaks to professionalism in the industry.”
The new report showed that Nigeria has gone ahead of two countries, now occupying the third position in the percentage of unserviced aircraft.
The report explained that Asia and North America as the continent with the highest number of active aircraft.
The report read, “Asia 7, 584 and North America 6, 130 are still leading the list with the highest number of active aircraft in their fleet. They are followed by Europe, with currently 3, 833 active aircraft. Africa counts 837, South America 822, and Oceania 627 aircraft currently flying.
“When it comes to the top 10 countries with the highest percentage of active fleets, with 100 and more registered aircraft, Ethiopia leads the list with 90.43 per cent of the active fleet with 104 aircraft. The list is followed by China, Taiwan, Japan, Brazil, Vietnam, Mexico, New Zealand, India and Saudi Arabia.”
This situation has led Nigerian airlines to opt for smaller, fuel-efficient and low-age aircraft in a bid to bring down the cost of operations.
-PUNCH (NG)