Arik Air and Air Peace both have 22 planes each in their fleet, the largest fleet in the country. On the other hand, Dana Air has the oldest planes in its fleet with an average plane age of its 6 crafts being 27.1 years.

Using data provided by planespotters.net and airfleets.net, we compile a list of the common aircrafts currently being used by Nigerian commercial airlines — Arik air, Aero contractors, Air Peace, Med-View Airlines, Max Air, Azman Air and Dana Air.

The Boeing 737 is a short-to-medium range twinjet narrow-body airliner developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in the United States. The 737 models have 13 major variants, divided into four generations — Original, Classic, Next Generation and MAX series.

The latest in design are the Boeing 737 MAX series, one of which was unfortunately involved in the Ethiopian Airline crash. In Nigeria, earlier versions of the Boeing 737 are the most common in commercial fleets. Arik Air and Air Peace each have 13 variants of Boeing 737, Aero Contractors have nine, Azman Air and Max Air own four, and Med-view Airline has three. However, no Nigerian airline has a Boeing 737 MAX as of the time of writing this article.

The DHC-8 Dash 8 is a series of turboprop-powered regional airliners, introduced by de Havilland Canada (DHC) in 1984. The craft comes in four series — 100, 200, 300 and 400/Q400. Production of the Series 100 ceased in 2005, followed by the 200 and 300 in 2009, leaving the Q400 as the only series still in production.

Arik Air has four relatively new (average plane age of 7.9 years) DHC-8-400 in its fleet while Aero Contractors has one DHC-8-300 and one DHC-8-400, with an average plane age of 18.1 years.

The Embraer ERJ family is a series of twin-engine regional jets produced by Embraer, a Brazilian aerospace company. This aircraft comes in a series that include the ERJ135, ERJ140, and the more common ERJ145 which has the capacity of 50 passengers. The ERJ145 was designed with increased speed, comfort and passenger appeal in mind over fuel economy.

In Nigeria, Max Air and Air Peace are the only commercial airlines that operate this aircraft. Air Peace owns six of the regional jets while Max owns only one.

The McDonnell Douglas MD-80 is a series of twin-engine, short- to medium-range, single-aisle commercial jetliners. The series can seat from 130 to 172 passengers depending on the variant and seating configuration. This is the only aircraft series that Dana Air has in its fleet — six MD-80 variants in total with an average plane age of 27.1 years.

It was the McDonnell Douglas MD-83 that was involved in the ghastly Dana crash of 2011 in Lagos where 163 were killed.

Boeing 777 (Triple Seven) is a long-range wide-body twin-engine jet airliner, also developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. It is the world's largest twinjet and has a typical seating capacity of 314 to 396 passengers. In its 18 years of service, the 777 has been in two deadly crashes.

In Nigeria, it is not as common as the Boeing 737. Air Peace owns two 737 variants while Med-View Airline owns just one.