AM EDITORIAL: Addressing Operational, Financial Effects Of Bird Strikes On Airline Business In Nigeria
A bird strike which happens worldwide every year, is a collision between an aircraft and one or more birds. This occurrence is understandable since birds share the same airspace near airports.
The incident occurs usually during take-off, low altitude flight or landing, often necessitating emergency landing and rejected take-offs.
According to International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), bird strikes cause over $1.2 billion in damage globally each year. In the United States of America, there are over 14,000 incidents of bird strike annually according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). UK Civil Aviation Authority data shows that there were 1,432 recorded bird strikes in UK in 2022.
In Asia, roughly 5,900 shared incidents were reported in recent regional data. In Ethiopia, Bole International Airport (Addis Ababa) and Bahir Dar International Airport recorded 77 birds involved in 33 strikes during a 12-month study period.
Bird strikes occur during dawn and dusk when bird are most active and at certain times of the year, they occur due to migratory patterns.
The financial implications of bird strikes on airlines result from their effects on aircraft such as engine failure, windshield penetration and structural damage. Apart from engines, they can strike wings and propellers of an aircraft, shatter cockpit windows, impair pilot visibility, interfere with and compromise onboard systems such as sensors.
When bird strikes occur, they leave airlines with flight disruptions, delays, cancellations, costly maintenance inspections and engine repairs. Bird strikes will obviously rise in future because of climate change, urban expansion and increasing number of flights globally.
In Nigeria, most airports are located close to forests. Although the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has been making efforts to tackle this menace over the years, defraying the cost of aircraft engine replacement has been tasking to airlines and poor waste management by airport surrounding communities has not helped matters.
Between 2005 and 2010, Nigeria recorded over 200 incidents of bird strikes and 134 incidents were recorded between 2015 and 2020 according to FAAN.
Between 2016 and 2017, there were 27 incidents according to Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), 14 of which occurred during take-offs while 13 occurred during landings. 93 bird strikes occurred across Nigeria in the first half of 2022, 54 of which happened at Murtala Muhammed Airport as at September 17, 2022, with 32 occurring in just two months.
Between 2021 and 2022, local and foreign airlines operating into Nigeria’s airports recorded 127 bird strike incidents in 21 months across 26 of Nigeria’s airports.
Arik Air, Aero, Air Peace and United Nigeria Airlines are among domestic airlines that have been challenged by bird strikes over the years. Aero’s B737-500 was grounded in May 2021 for repairs in Port Harcourt after a bird strike.
In recent years, Air Peace has recorded the highest number of bird strikes because it has the largest aircraft fleet. The airline recorded 14 bird strikes in 2021, 26 bird strikes in 2023 (February to June), 43 bird strikes in 2024 and 49 bird strikes between January and September 2025 across Nigeria’s airports.
In February 2025, the airline had to ground three aircraft in less than 48 hours due to bird strikes, causing operations disruptions, flight delays and cancellations.
Between January and February 2026, United Nigeria Airlines said it recorded four bird strikes, stating that two of its Airbus aircraft were withdrawn from service within 24 hours. One of the engines of its second A320 was struck by a bird during a take-off of Flight UNO519 scheduled for 12:00hrs from Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja to Murtala Muhammed Airport on February 15, 2026.
Even though cost of replacing and repairing engines damaged by bird strikes has been put at an estimated N20 billion annually, inflationary factors could have upped that figure.
Considering the recent occurrences, it has become necessary for the airport authority to deploy bird detection radar to monitor avian movement in real time in addition to management of grass length, removal of food sources for birds to make the airports less appealing to them.
The use of deterrents like loud noises, visual deterrents such as reflective objects or lasers to scare birds away from runways can help.
This is an era when the airport authority needs to deploy AI-integrated radar systems, automated drones for wildlife monitoring and data analytics for migratory predictions to manage the emerging risks of bird strikes, which is actually a global challenge. It is also important to study the species of birds at the airports. Phoenix airport wailers that create noise to scare away birds could equally be deployed.
Pilots should ensure that they adhere to Air Traffic Control instructions. While FAAN adopts flight schedule modifications, airlines can also alter routes during migratory seasons based on wildlife data to avoid known bird concentrations. Wildlife and management specialists skilled in this business are required to implement risk mitigation strategies.
There is also need to discuss shared insurance burden between FAAN and airline operators. Infact, a better collaborative approach by FAAN and airline operators in Nigeria will help the industry address this menace. AM
