Market notes
On chartering from Lagos
Lagos is West Africa's business-aviation gateway. Murtala Muhammed offers 3,900 m of runway with 24 hour operation and two competing FBOs, so any business jet can arrive nonstop from Europe, the Gulf or the Americas. ExecuJet's Lagos facility combines a 4,074 m² hangar with a 22,835 m² apron and an on-site 5-star hotel, and processes customs and immigration inside the FBO. Evergreen Apple Nigeria opened Nigeria's first fully-fledged business-jet FBO/MRO in July 2011. Between them, the two FBOs handle almost all inbound charter volume, and their infrastructure quality is unusual for the region.
The Detty December season is the annual peak. Lagos drew about 1.2 million tourists in December during the recent season, with roughly 550,000 arriving from overseas, mainly Nigerians living abroad. That produces a mid-November to early January demand spike that pushes commercial fares to record highs and drives a portion of that traffic to charter. Lagos to London economy tickets reached USD 4,700 in the recent peak, which puts an on-demand charter within the same order of magnitude for a family group. Domestic Lagos to Abuja fares more than doubled during the same period, pushing families onto Nigerian domestic charter at NGN 7 to 10 million per one-way.
The European corridor is the most active international route. London and Paris are the recurring destinations, both roughly 5 to 6 hour heavy-jet sectors from the 3,900 m Murtala Muhammed runway. The Dubai corridor at 6h 57m is ultra-long-range eastbound. Johannesburg is Southern Africa's dedicated business-aviation gateway at 5h 32m heavy. New York at 9h 52m ULR is the longest sector, and mirrors the increased scheduled Lagos to Washington service that United ran over the recent holidays. Return sectors from Europe typically ferry an aircraft back to its home base, so most empty-leg supply is created by the outbound reposition rather than the return.
JetAlto sizes Lagos quotes around three specific risks. First, slot and handling coordination at Murtala Muhammed, which is mandatory and best confirmed 48 to 72 hours out. Second, aircraft import-duty status, following the June 2025 case where Nigerian customs grounded around 60 private jets over unpaid duties. Third, ground security and transfer time, since the airport-to-Victoria Island transfer can run 45 to 60 minutes in normal traffic and longer in December. Helicopter transfer cuts that to under 20 minutes delivered. Each risk is stated on the quote so the delivered mission is defined before you commit.
