Dana Air Resumes Flights After Two-Month Grounding Over Technical Faults

Dana Air resumed scheduled commercial flights on 14 March 2017, ending a roughly two-month grounding it had entered voluntarily in January after a series of technical faults raised safety concerns across its MD-83 fleet.

A Cautious Return

The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority cleared each aircraft individually as maintenance checks were completed, meaning the airline initially resumed with a reduced schedule on its core Lagos-Abuja route before gradually restoring other domestic connections.

Rebuilding Passenger Confidence

Industry observers said the extended grounding, while costly for the airline, was seen as a deliberate move to rebuild passenger confidence after years of scrutiny over the safety record of Nigeria's older MD-80-series aircraft fleets.