Turkish Airlines Drops Out as Air Peace Forces Its Way into Africa’s Top 10 Carriers

Turkish Airlines has been knocked out of Africa’s top 10 airlines by seat capacity, replaced by a Nigerian carrier whose growth rate more than doubled that of any other operator on the list, in a reshuffling that signals a shifting balance of power in African skies.

According to OAG’s July 2026 scheduled capacity data, Turkish Airlines’ seat numbers fell 7.7 per cent year-on-year, enough to drop it out of the continent’s top 10 carriers.

Air Peace took its place, expanding capacity by 50.6 per cent, from 239,200 to 360,200 seats, an addition of 121,000, which represents the fastest growth rate among the top 10 and well ahead of second-placed Royal Air Maroc, which grew 16.4 per cent.

The timing offers a clue to how that growth is being built. Air Peace received its first brand-new Embraer E175 on 7 July 2026, when the 88-seat aircraft, registered 5N-CGH, landed at Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, following a ferry flight from Brazil after handover by manufacturer Embraer, according to Aviation Metric.

The jet, configured in a 2-2 layout with no middle seats, is designed for short-to-medium-haul domestic and regional routes, precisely the segment driving Nigeria’s capacity surge this year.

Airline spokesperson Efe Osifo-Whiskey said the aircraft reflects Air Peace’s unwavering commitment to continuous investment in modern aviation assets intended to strengthen route connectivity and lift flight frequencies across Nigeria, West Africa and Central Africa.

Meanwhile, the OAG report shows that Ethiopian Airlines remains comfortably Africa’s largest carrier, operating 2,136,300 seats in July, up 12.1 per cent from 1,906,200 a year earlier. Safair holds second position with 1,014,200 seats, growing more modestly at 2.1 per cent from 992,900. Egyptair sits third with 870,800 seats, up 9.5 percent from 795,500.

Royal Air Maroc’s 16.4 per cent expansion took it from 732,200 to 852,300 seats, placing it fourth, just ahead of Air Algerie, which grew 9.8 per cent to 758,900 seats from 691,200.

Airlink follows in sixth with 557,000 seats, up 5.8 per cent from 526,300, while Ryanair holds seventh with 505,700 seats, an 8 per cent rise from 468,200.

Emirates and Transavia.com France round out the middle of the table. Emirates grew 8.9 per cent to 429,400 seats from 394,300, and Transavia rose 6.1 per cent to 393,200 from 370,600.

Air Peace’s climb to 360,200 seats secured it the tenth and final spot, the position Turkish Airlines has now vacated.

The displacement is notable because Turkish Airlines has long used its African network as a showcase of Istanbul’s ambitions as a global connecting hub.

Its retreat from the top 10, even as every other carrier on the list grew, raises questions about whether the airline is deliberately reallocating capacity elsewhere or losing ground to competition on African routes themselves.

A similar reordering played out among airports, where Tunis replaced Hurghada in the continent’s top 10 by seat capacity, part of a wider pattern in which established names are being tested by faster-moving challengers across several categories in the same dataset.

Whether Air Peace can sustain its rate of expansion, or whether Turkish Airlines’ decline proves temporary, are questions the next few months of scheduling data should begin to answer.

Reference table: Africa’s top 10 airlines, July 2026