United Nigeria Airlines (UN, Enugu) has started wet-leasing a CRJ900ER, ZS-CAU (msn 15038), from CemAir (5Z, Johannesburg O.R. Tambo) for use on domestic and regional routes, according to ch-aviation research.
ADS-B data shows the 20.7-year-old regional jet entered service for United Nigeria Airlines on January 20 on the route between Abuja and Lagos after it was ferried from Johannesburg O.R. Tambo via Libreville Leon M'Ba on January 18-19. It currently operates domestic routes between Lagos, Abuja, Kano, and Ilorin, and regionally to Accra, Ghana.
ch-aviation contacted United Nigeria Airlines and CemAir for more information.
According to ch-aviation data, the 79-seater jet accommodates 70 passengers in economy class and nine in business class. The aircraft is a new addition to CemAir's fleet. It was first acquired by Mesa Airlines in 2005, where it flew under the registration N938LR until it was remarketed in 2024. It had been stored in Johannesburg since February 2024, re-registered by September 2025, and entered service under CemAir domestic flight numbers by October 20.
United Nigeria Airlines currently relies heavily on ACMI for capacity, but has signed a sale and purchase agreement with Southwest Airlines for six B737-800s and expressed interest in four more, to be inducted between the first quarter of 2026 and the first quarter of 2027.
It already wet-leases an CRJ900LR, ZS-CMO (msn 15400), from CemAir, since November 4, 2025. ADS-B data shows this is mostly deployed on domestic routes between Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt Awolowo, Benin City, Asaba, and Ilorin, and occasionally to Accra.
The Nigerian carrier also still wet-leases one E190 from Ukraine's Windrose Airlines, and three A320-200s from Fly2Sky. Its in-house fleet includes four E145s (three active) and one B737-500 (inactive).
CemAir has seven CRJ900s in its fleet, including one CRJ900, one CRJ900ER, and five CRJ900LRs, according to ch-aviation and ADS-B data. Four more units await to enter service, including one more CRJ900 from Mesa Airlines, one CRJ900ER from Syphax Airlines, and two CRJ900LRs from Mesa and Regional One.
