[5][6][7] Owned or leased, the carrier operated a variety of aircraft during its history, including the Vickers VC10, the Airbus A310, the Boeing 737 and 747 and the McDonnell Douglas DC-10, of which it flew the last one ever built.

[11] Initially, the carrier was a tripartite entity in which the Nigerian government was the major shareholder (51%), and Elder Dempster Lines and British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) held the balance (322⁄3 and 161⁄3, respectively).

[10] In early 1961, Nigeria became the only owner of the company by buying the shares held by BOAC and Elder Dempster;[14] the airline became the flag carrier of the country.

The Friendships joined the fleet between January and May 1963, and were deployed on regional routes, including those that served Abidjan, Accra, Bathurst, Dakar, Freetown and Robertsfield.

[17] By June, the DC-3s had begun to be replaced by the Friendships on routes to Gambia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Leopoldville.

[12] BOAC subsequently operated Vickers VC-10 services on behalf of Nigeria Airways from April 1964 until an aircraft of the type was acquired from the British state airline in October 1969 (1969-10);[18] the airplane was destroyed in an accident in November that year.

At this time, the fleet comprised one Piper Aztec, one Douglas DC-3 and six Fokker F27s that worked on a domestic network and regional routes that extended west, as far as Dakar, operated in a pool agreement with Ghana Airways; the European list of destinations included Frankfurt, London, Madrid and Rome, all of them served with VC10s chartered from BOAC.

[40] In 1982, Boeing 747s were successively leased from the Danish charter airline Scanair and SAS; the aircraft were deployed on services to the United Kingdom, permitting the DC-10s to be used on new routes to Frankfurt, Paris, and Zürich.

[41][42] The airline took possession of four new Boeing 737-200s in early 1983 that would replace leased aircraft of the same type; they were acquired with a loan of US$70 million that was arranged with seven major banks.

[44] A military coup d'état that took place in the last day of 1983 changed the structure of the government and the airline: Bernard Banfa was appointed managing director and many of the staff trained by KLM were dismissed.

[45] The introduction of unregulated IMF policies, alongside corruption,[nb 1] mismanagement and overstaffing, led to a steady decline of Nigeria Airways from the 1980s.

This situation prompted the airline to increase its domestic and international fares by 100% and 20%, respectively, in order to raise funds to alleviate the deficit, but this measure reduced the passenger traffic.

[54] Even though 1,000 jobs had been cut by late 1986 and 1,700 in the course of the previous year,[50] Nigeria ordered the airline to further downsize (the number of employees was 8,500 at the time—or 500 for each aircraft in the fleet, twice the international average[53]—) and to reduce or discontinue unprofitable routes.

[26] In 1992, Nigeria Airways had three Boeing 707s impounded in Europe, and the number of flights experienced a 32% reduction following the termination of services to Conakry, Freetown and Robertsfield (Monrovia).

By the late 1990s, the Nigerian government decided the carrier would be privatised by selling 40% and 20% to foreign and local investors, respectively, and keeping the rest of the shares.

[62] Among three options, one of them was to partner with a large European airline; Air France, British Airways, Lufthansa, Swissair and Virgin Atlantic were all considered.

[66][67] That year, the IFC withdrew from its advisory position citing the unwillingness of both the company and the government to carry out the necessary measures that would make the airline attractive to potential investors.

[68] Later on, there were various allegations claiming the airline's failure was accelerated by former Nigerian rulers who looted and mismanaged the company, to the extent that the government started an investigation into the disappearance of more than US$400 million between 1983 and 1999.

[71][72] In May 2003, when Nigeria Airways had a Boeing 737-200 as its sole serviceable aircraft, the government decided not to pump more money into the overstaffed carrier but to liquidate it.

[53][nb 3] At the time of closure the Nigeria Airways network consisted of four domestic destinations, namely Abuja, Kano, Lagos and Port Harcourt.

[1]: 51 The following aircraft types were operated by Nigeria Airways during the course of its history:[83] Aviation Safety Network records 16 events for the airline, eight of which led to fatalities.