Nigeria’s scheduled airline seat capacity rose 37% year-on-year to 1.22 million seats in August 2026, recording the fastest growth among Africa’s top aviation markets. This is according to the OAG Scheduled Capacity Data for August 2026, which tracks scheduled airline seat capacity across the continent. The report showed Nigeria added 330,700 scheduled seats compared with August 2025, outperforming every other top 10 African market, while the continent’s total scheduled airline seat capacity grew by 8.4% during the period. What the report is saying
According to OAG, Nigeria’s domestic aviation market also recorded strong growth in August 2026, with scheduled seat capacity increasing 42.6% year on year to 907,600 seats, representing an additional 271,000 seats compared with the same period last year.
“Nigeria is the fastest-growing country market at +37.0% to 1.22 million seats.”
Egypt remained Africa’s largest airline market with 3.2 million scheduled seats, up 12.1% year-on-year, followed by South Africa with 2.34 million seats and Morocco with 2.21 million. South Africa retained its position as Africa’s largest domestic aviation market with 1.6 million scheduled seats. Elsewhere, domestic capacity increased 44% in Congo and 25.2% in Egypt, while Kenya recorded an 11.2% decline, equivalent to 48,800 fewer seats than in August 2025. Across the continent, total scheduled airline seat capacity reached 27.3 million seats in August 2026, up 8.4% year-on-year. International services accounted for 21.5 million seats, representing 79% of total capacity, while domestic services contributed 5.8 million seats, an 11% increase from a year earlier. Top airlines operating in Africa by seat capacity
The OAG report also ranked airlines by scheduled seat capacity across the African market in August 2026. Ethiopian Airlines retained its position as the continent’s largest airline by seat capacity.
Ethiopian Airlines remained the largest operator with 2.19 million seats, up 10.9% year-on-year. South Africa’s Safair ranked second with 984,700 seats despite a 1.1% decline, while EgyptAir placed third with 922,600 seats, up 8.1%.
Royal Air Maroc ranked fourth with 868,100 seats, while Air Algérie placed fifth after recording the fastest growth among the top 10 operators at 16.8%. Air Peace dropped out of Africa’s top 10 airline rankings in August, with Kenya Airways returning to the list in 10th place.
The remainder of the top 10 included Airlink, Ryanair, Emirates, Transavia France and Kenya Airways. What you should know
The August OAG data also showed that Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, recorded the strongest growth among Africa’s 10 busiest airports in August 2026, with scheduled seat capacity increasing 25.6% year-on-year. Cairo International Airport remained Africa’s busiest airport with 1.85 million scheduled seats, followed by Addis Ababa with 1.25 million and Johannesburg with 1.15 million. Hurghada International Airport recorded the second-fastest growth among the continent’s top 10 airports, with capacity rising 18.6%. Nairametrics recently reported that Nigeria accounted for three of Africa’s 15 busiest domestic airport pairs in the first half of 2026. The Lagos-Abuja route ranked as Africa’s third busiest domestic air corridor with 888,070 scheduled one-way seats, while the Lagos-Port Harcourt
The latest figures underscore the continued expansion of Nigeria’s domestic aviation market, with both airline and airport capacity recording some of the strongest growth rates across the continent.
