Running a Private Jet from Lagos, Lanseria or Nairobi

Jet A-1 in Lagos, Johannesburg and Nairobi

In Africa the fuel price depends mostly on how the fuel reached the airport.

Lagos

Most Jet A-1 sold in Nigeria now comes from the Dangote refinery in the Lekki free zone, which sets an ex-depot price in naira and changed it more than once during 2026. At Murtala Muhammed you pay that price plus the marketer's margin, trucking and the into-plane fee. Nigeria has also had spells of Jet A-1 scarcity, so Lagos crews plan uplift with a fallback source.

Johannesburg: Lanseria and O.R. Tambo

Gauteng sits far inland, so every litre has travelled up from the coast. The price follows the international product price in dollars, converted to rand, plus transport and the into-plane charge. Get a written price at each field rather than assuming one Johannesburg rate.

Nairobi

Kenya lets jet fuel imports in duty-free, which removes one layer, and most fuel reaches Nairobi by pipeline from Mombasa. Wilson's night curfew pushes some long departures to Jomo Kenyatta, where supply and pricing differ.

Many lodge strips have no jet fuel at all. And every published hourly estimate hides a fuel assumption: the Praetor 600 figure below uses $9 a gallon.

Parking and hangarage at Lanseria and Wilson

Neither airport publishes a hangar tariff and we have seen no reliable public figure, so we print none. What moves the quote:

• Footprint: a Challenger 350 blocks more floor than a PC-12 and pays for it.
• Covered or open: apron parking is cheaper but exposed to sun, dust and Highveld summer hail.
• The FBO: at Lanseria (HLA), ExecuJet, Africa's first IS-BAH accredited FBO in 2015, works alongside Luxaviation and National Airways Corporation; at Wilson (WIL), Phoenix Aviation and ALS.
• Hours: Wilson closes to most general aviation movements from 9pm to 6am.

Add parking for nights away. An aircraft left outside in humid, coastal Lagos for weeks earns extra corrosion attention at its next inspection.

Crew: salaries, licences and simulator time

Most jets need two pilots; the Phenom 300E is certified for single-pilot operation. With no published salary benchmark for Nigeria, South Africa or Kenya, here is the structure:

• Pay: jet captains are hired in an international market, so salaries are often benchmarked in dollars.
• Licence validation: a foreign licence must be validated by NCAA for a 5N- aircraft, or by SACAA for ZS-.
• Training: for many types the nearest approved simulator is abroad, so each recurrent session adds flights, hotels and lost days.
• Nights away: a Lagos-London night stop means hotels and allowances in pounds.
• Relief: at high annual hours, holidays, sim sessions and rest periods can leave a single crew short of the schedule.

Insurance: hull, liability and territory

No insurer publishes an Africa rate card. Hull and liability are quoted per aircraft on the agreed hull value, crew hours and hours on type, the base (hangared at Lanseria is a different risk from an open coastal apron) and territorial limits. Check that every country on your routes, technical stops included, is inside the policy, and ask whether war and allied perils sit in a separate cover.

NCAA wants a current insurance certificate in the 5N- registration file, so price cover with a specialist aviation broker before you sign for the aircraft.

Engine programmes, maintenance and spares

Pratt & Whitney Canada's ESP (Citation XLS+, Phenom 300E, PC-12, King Air 350i) and Honeywell's MSP Gold (Challenger 350, Praetor 600) turn a future overhaul into a dollar charge per flight hour. Enrolled aircraft resell better; one outside a programme may face a buy-in first.

The African difference is logistics. South Africa has the continent's deepest maintenance base around Johannesburg. Elsewhere, a shop visit often means shipping the engine or component abroad, with freight, export and re-import paperwork and downtime.

Spares clear customs differently too: duty-free in Kenya, while Nigeria's parts waiver covers commercial airlines, not private owners, and Ghana's aviation authority has lobbied to scrap duty on spares. The Citation XLS+ band of $3,000 to $3,800 per hour covers fuel, engine reserve and routine maintenance only; the Citation XLS+ profile lists the type checks.

Navigation, landing and permit charges

Navigation and airport bills come from different bodies in each country:

• South Africa: ATNS (Air Traffic and Navigation Services) bills air navigation. ACSA sets landing and parking tariffs at O.R. Tambo and Cape Town; privately run Lanseria sets its own.
• Nigeria: NAMA (the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency) bills en-route charges and FAAN bills landing and parking at Lagos and Abuja. In 2024 NAMA announced a steep increase, then suspended it days later after the minister intervened: this line moves with policy.
• Kenya: the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority raises navigation charges; the Kenya Airports Authority runs Wilson and Jomo Kenyatta.

A Lagos-London leg also crosses ASECNA-managed airspace in West Africa, then European airspace billed through Eurocontrol, and each state on a non-scheduled route wants its own permit. Our all-in charter quotes in Nigeria already include them.

Currency risk: naira, rand and shilling against the dollar

This line sits on top of all the others. Engine programmes, parts, insurance, training and most finance are invoiced in dollars; handling, some hangarage, local staff and, in Nigeria, depot fuel are invoiced locally. Most owners earn in naira, rand or shillings.

The naira lost well over half its dollar value after Nigeria unified its exchange-rate windows in 2023. The Kenyan shilling fell sharply into early 2024, then recovered much of it. The rand can swing hard with global risk sentiment. So:

1. Build the budget in dollars, then convert.
2. Hold a dollar reserve for several months of fixed costs.
3. In Nigeria, allow time to source dollars through the bank.
4. Re-run the local-currency figure every quarter.

Hourly bands and the annual total

With written quotes for the fixed lines, the published estimates below cover the variable side. Multiply by the hours you will really fly, add fixed lines and the currency buffer, then compare with charter: our charter versus ownership guide runs that test at 150, 300 and 450 hours. To set purchase prices beside those hourly bands, the jets currently listed show asking prices for the same classes.