Air travel as a catalyst for Urban Development: Examining Thunderstorm Occurrence on Flight Operations at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Nigeria

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his study evaluates the influence and trend of thunderstorms on flight operations at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, Nigeria, from 1991 to 2020. This research employed secondary data on thunderstorm occurrences from the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) and flight operations data from the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), both at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja. The statistical analyses employed were line graphs, tables, simple correlation, and descriptive statistics. Simple linear regression was used to establish the influence and trend of thunderstorm occurrence values for the study area. The changes in the (number of years) (x) are associated with changes in the (thunderstorm occurrences) (y). The negative slope of -0.0643 indicates that as the independent variable (x) increases by one unit, the number of thunderstorm occurrences (y) decreases by approximately 0.0643 units. In other words, there is a negative relationship between the number of years (x) and the number of annual thunderstorm occurrences (y), suggesting that as the value of x increases, thunderstorm occurrences (y) tend to decrease. The y-intercept is the value of y when x is equal to 0. In this case, when x is zero, the number of thunderstorm occurrences (y) is expected to be approximately 240. This intercept represents the estimated baseline number of thunderstorm occurrences when the R-squared value is 0.0023. The results showed that there is a relationship between thunderstorm occurrences and flight operations at a 95% confidence level, although the relationship is not statistically significant (p>0.05). Recommendations were based on the fact that insufficient data on other parameters, such as flight delays, flight cancellations, and flight diversions, are due to inadequate record-keeping. Therefore, there is a need for all aviation organizations concerned to develop a grassroots information database and keep proper records of every flight operation activity.