In 1990 Nigeria had thirty-two airports with paved runways, three of which--Murtala Muhammad International at Lagos, Aminu Kano International at Kano, and Port Harcourt--offered regularly scheduled international flights. The parastatal Nigeria Airways provided domestic service between these three airports and fields in ten other Nigerian cities. Schedule irregularities and passenger complaints were common, and the government put increasing pressure on Nigeria Airways to improve its standard of service and reduce its financial losses. Despite the problems, the number of passengers on domestic flights increased throughout the 1980s, in part because of the poor state of other modes of transportation.

Data as of June 1991