Air Peace's Allen Onyema says Nigerian airlines are bleeding $15 million a year to bird strikes

Allen Onyema has a number he keeps returning to, and it keeps getting harder to ignore. Nigerian airlines lose at least N20 billion ($15 million) every year to bird strikes, a figure the Air Peace chairman has cited across industry forums, television interviews and stakeholder sessions as evidence that the country's aviation sector is fighting a crisis that gets far less attention than fuel prices and taxation.

The figure comes from the Airline Operators of Nigeria, the industry body that groups domestic carriers. It covers repairs, replacement of aircraft components, flight delays and cancellations triggered by wildlife collisions with aircraft. N20 billion annually. Not across a decade. Per year.

Onyema's own airline tells the story in granular terms. Between January and September 2025, Air Peace recorded 49 bird strike incidents across Nigeria. That is roughly one incident every five or six days, across nine months, at a single airline.

"One bird strike could cripple your aircraft for the next month," Onyema said during an interview on ARISE News. "These bird strikes often lead to costly delays and serious disruptions in flight schedules."

The financial mechanics are straightforward and brutal. When a bird strike damages an engine, the aircraft is grounded. Depending on the severity of the damage and the availability of parts, that grounding can last weeks. In one case Onyema cited publicly, an Embraer 195 E2 engine damaged in a bird strike cost approximately $3.2 million to replace, and the aircraft was grounded for an additional week because the manufacturer had not anticipated the specific damage profile.

That is one aircraft, one incident. Multiply that across 49 incidents in nine months at one airline, and the scale of the problem becomes clear. Airlines operating in Nigeria face this on top of naira volatility, jet fuel costs, multiple taxation layers and inadequate airport infrastructure.

Bird strikes are not unique to Nigeria. They occur at airports globally. But Nigerian airports, several of which sit adjacent to poorly managed vegetation, open waste sites and water bodies that attract wildlife, create conditions where the frequency of incidents is higher than the global average.

The Airline Operators of Nigeria has repeatedly raised the issue with aviation regulators, calling for better wildlife management programs at Nigerian airports and more structured reporting mechanisms. Progress has been slow. Meanwhile, the incidents keep accumulating.

Onyema's public pressure on this issue sits alongside his broader campaign against what he describes as excessive fiscal burdens on local carriers. He has warned that without structural relief on multiple fronts simultaneously, including bird strikes, taxation and fuel costs, domestic airfares will keep climbing and airline viability will remain under threat.