Chanchangi Airlines

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Chanchangi Airlines

Chanchangi Airlines Nigeria Limited was a privately owned and operated airline with its head office in the Chanchangi Office Complex in Kaduna, Nigeria. It operates scheduled domestic passenger services. Its main base was Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos, with hubs at Kaduna, Abuja, and Port Harcourt. Alhaji Ahmadu Chanchangi, its founder, hails from Chanchangi village in Takum Local Government of Taraba state, Nigeria.


The airline was established on 5 January 1994 by Alhaji Chanchangi and started flight operations to and from Kaduna, Lagos, Owerri, Abuja and Port Harcourt on 2 May 1997. Services were operated using Boeing 727-200 aircraft; 3 Boeing 737-200 aircraft and 2 Boeing 737-300 aircraft were also acquired in 2009. Chanchangi Airlines won the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the Corporate Merit Award for "Best Domestic Airline of the Year" for 1998, 1999 and 2000.

In 2004, it obtained route authorities for services to Abidjan, Accra, Dakar, Douala and Malabo. On 26 March 2006 services from Lagos to Accra were introduced. The airline was owned by Alhaji Ahmadu Chanchangi (94%) and four other individuals holding a 1% stake each. It had 780 employees by March 2007.

The Nigerian government set a deadline of April 30, 2007, for all airlines operating in the country to re-capitalise or be grounded, in an effort to ensure better services and safety. The airline satisfied the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA)'s criteria in terms of re-capitalization and was re-registered for operation.

The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) grounded Chanchangi Airlines on July 5, 2010, citing a regulation that no airline can operate with only one aircraft in service, which was the case with Chanchangi at the time.[5] On October 21, 2010, Chanchangi Airlines resumed operations between Lagos and Abuja.

Chanchangi Airlines failed to appear on April 1, 2012, to defend itself against charges filed against it by Ethiopian Airlines for failing to settle a 14 million Br bill for maintenance services. Due to this, its plane was grounded at Bole International Airport, where some analysts predicted failure to make payment would lead Ethiopian Airlines to auction the aircraft.

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