Travellers reach Nigeria from 3 African airports on 3 catalogued routes, flown by Arik Air, South African Airways. This corridor sits in the intra-Africa + Gulf hub transit corridor. The tables below list every catalogued route, the carriers on it, and — where our cache has data — the lowest USD fare seen; all fares are quoted in USD, with on-the-ground spending in NGN.
Routes to Nigeria
3 catalogued corridors reach Nigeria from 3 African airports, flown by 2 carriers and totalling about 70 weekly departures, with block times from 1.0 h to 6.0 h. 0 of them run fewer than seven times a week, the line where a cancellation starts costing days rather than hours.
| Route | Carriers | Freq/wk | Block (h) | Market low (USD) | Guide |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lagos (LOS) → Abuja (ABV) | W3 | ~42 | ~1.0 | — | guide |
| Johannesburg (JNB) → Lagos (LOS) | W3, SA | ~14 | ~6.0 | — | guide |
| Accra (ACC) → Lagos (LOS) | W3 | ~14 | ~1.2 | $355 | guide |
Every corridor here runs at least daily on our estimates, which makes Nigeria unusually forgiving of disruption by African standards: a cancelled flight is normally a same-day or next-morning wait rather than a lost week. That resilience is worth more than a small fare saving on any trip with a fixed commitment at the far end.
Weekly frequency here is our catalogue’s estimate for each corridor as a whole rather than a published timetable for one airline, and it moves with the seasonal schedule change. Block times are scheduled gate-to-gate for the nonstop sector, so a much longer duration on a booking screen means a connection. Both figures are our own estimates, last revised 2026-05-19.
Airlines flying to Nigeria
2 carriers fly the corridors into Nigeria covered here; for the 2 we hold details on, checked-baggage baselines are 23 kg, and 1 of them belong to a global alliance. Baselines are economy figures and depend on the fare family you buy.
Carriers operating the catalogued routes to Nigeria, with alliance, baggage baseline and any diaspora or pilgrim baggage uplift:
| Airline | Alliance | Checked baggage | Diaspora uplift | Hajj/Umrah charter |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arik Air (W3) | None | 23 kg | — | No |
| South African Airways (SA) | Star Alliance | 23 kg | +5 kg | No |
Diaspora and migrant-worker baggage uplift recorded against these carriers: South African Airways +5 kg. Three exclusions normally apply to promotions of this kind: they attach to nominated corridors rather than the whole network, they are rarely honoured on another airline’s codeshare or interline segment, and the deepest-discount fare buckets are usually carved out. Confirm against your own booking class in writing.
Alliance membership on the Nigeria corridors — Star Alliance (1) — matters most when something goes wrong. On one ticket, an alliance partner can usually take a disrupted passenger without a new fare and bags stay through-checked; across alliances that becomes a commercial favour. Two separate tickets remove the protection entirely, whatever the alliance.
Visa & entry — Nigeria
This page does not state an entry requirement for Nigeria, because the rule depends on your passport. Check Nigeria’s own immigration or foreign-ministry guidance for your nationality before booking — it is the only authority worth acting on.
Visa requirements for Nigeria vary by passport. Check Nigeria’s official immigration or foreign-ministry guidance for your nationality before booking. On-the-ground currency: NGN.
Nationality changes this answer. The row above names the passports it covers; a traveller on a West African, East African or North African passport not named there can face a different fee, a different processing route or outright ineligibility for the same Nigeria entry class.
The trap on a Nigeria itinerary is usually the transit rather than the destination. A connection can place you airside in a third country that requires a transit visa for your nationality even when you never leave the terminal, and the airline checks documentation for the entire itinerary at the origin gate. Check every country your ticket touches, against your own passport.
When to book
Book 4-8 weeks ahead. Treat that window as general guidance for travel into Nigeria rather than a rule for a single pairing; on thin corridors seat availability binds before price does.
Book 4-8 weeks ahead. Fares rise around the December holidays; mid-week departures are usually the cheapest. See each per-route guide for month-by-month fare seasonality.
Booking windows are about competition for seats, not a hidden cheapest day. On a corridor with several daily rotations there is inventory left to release, and a late booking sometimes still finds a workable bucket; on a thin corridor into Nigeria the cheap buckets are gone months out and no amount of searching brings them back. Check the frequency column before deciding how long to wait.
Fixed dates change the calculation entirely. A pilgrimage window, a school holiday, a contract start or a family event puts you in competition with everyone else holding that date, so the right move is to book early rather than to hunt. Flexible dates are the highest-leverage variable on these corridors — our own log regularly shows month-to-month movement larger than any gap between booking gates.
Cached fares to Nigeria
$355 is the lowest USD quote our cache holds on any corridor into Nigeria — on ACC-LOS — out of 1 priced corridor of the 3 catalogued. Each is one cached observation on its own corridor, in economy, not a low across the cache.
Lowest USD fares in our weekly Travelpayouts cache on routes to Nigeria (market lows across all carriers, each a dated observation; check live prices before booking):
| Corridor | Market low (USD) | Cheapest month seen |
|---|---|---|
| ACC-LOS | $355 | $160 in Jul 2026 |
| Corridor | Readings | Cached range (USD) | Cheapest week |
|---|---|---|---|
| ACC-LOS | 5 | $163–$370 | 2026-W25 |
| JNB-LOS | 6 | $223–$674 | 2026-W25 |
| LOS-ABV | 5 | $91–$168 | 2026-W23 |
Those rows come from our weekly fare log, which samples the cheapest published quote once a week across 161 corridors. Each reading is a single snapshot rather than an average of everything sold that week, so a one-week dip can be one small fare bucket. What the range does establish is a defensible floor: a live quote far above the top of the range on a Nigeria corridor is worth a second search on flexible dates.
Departure airports for Nigeria
3 African airports have a catalogued corridor to Nigeria on this site: Accra (ACC), Johannesburg (JNB) and Lagos (LOS). Fares from every one of them are quoted in USD so the origins stay comparable. Separately issued sectors carry no protection if the first runs late.
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Accra airport (ACC) — Kotoka International, Ghana: 11 catalogued departure corridors and 3 arrival corridors.
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Johannesburg airport (JNB) — O.R. Tambo International, South Africa: 39 catalogued departure corridors and 6 arrival corridors.
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Lagos airport (LOS) — Murtala Muhammed International, Nigeria: 19 catalogued departure corridors and 2 arrival corridors.
FAQ
Do I need a visa for Nigeria? Visa requirements depend on your passport. Check the destination’s official immigration or foreign-ministry guidance for your nationality before booking.
What currency is used in Nigeria? Nigeria uses NGN. Plan on-the-ground spending in NGN and compare airfares in USD.
How many routes go to Nigeria from Africa? Our catalogue lists 3 routes to Nigeria from 3 African airports — see the table above.
When are flights to Nigeria cheapest? Book 4-8 weeks ahead. Fares rise around the December holidays; mid-week departures are usually the cheapest.
Which airlines fly to Nigeria? Carriers on routes to Nigeria include Arik Air, South African Airways. See the per-route airlines in the table above.
How cheap are flights to Nigeria? The lowest cached fare to Nigeria in our weekly snapshot was about $355 on ACC-LOS — a dated observation, not a current price. Fares move with season; the route guides show each fare with the date it was found.
Search live fares
3 catalogued corridors into Nigeria means a live search will return several routings for the same dates; the lowest cached floor across them in our weekly snapshot was $355 — a dated observation, not a current price. Dates move the price more than any other variable. Fares across all 3 of those corridors are quoted in USD on this site so origins in different African markets stay comparable on one page.
Search flights to Nigeria on Aviasales ->
Three checks make results comparable. Fix passenger count and cabin before comparing, because a per-passenger fare and a total look identical on a results page. Read the elapsed time next to the price — a one-stop routing into Nigeria and a nonstop are different products. And check whether the fare includes the checked bag you will actually carry.
Scan the calendar, not the vendors. Between departure months our weekly log shows movement on these corridors well beyond anything that separates one booking gate from another, so a single flexible-date search outperforms repeated fixed-date ones. When the dates are fixed, earlier purchase is the only remaining lever.