Lagos tops airports with highest passengers

Out of the 3.5 million passengers that passed through Nigeria airports in the first quarter of 2019, 1.53 million, comprising 860,218 on domestic routes and 674,153 on international routes passed through Lagos.

This is contained in the latest report released by the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).

According to the report, Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja ranks second as it recorded 1.02 million passengers comprising 824,847 on domestic routes, while the international routes recorded 203,954 passengers.

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Port Harcourt International Airport recorded 271,948 passengers comprising 251,410 domestic passengers and 20,538 international, while Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano recorded 322,659 passengers comprising 281,234 domestic and 41,425 international passengers.

In the report, the overall air traffic passengers across the federation increased by 76,397 passengers and 2.23 percent growth compared to the 3.43 million passengers recorded in the first quarter of 2018 with 54,000 aircraft movements.

Recall that in 2018, international air passengers that departed the country rose by 13% up from 1.99 million in 2017.to2.25 million in 2018.

The monthly breakdown showed that 1.42 million passengers comprising 789,883 arrivals and 633,069 departures in 18,653 aircraft movements were recorded in the month of January.

However, the traffic dropped in February, as 976,112 passengers comprising 462,447 arrivals and 513,665 departures were recorded.

Lastly, in March 2019, the statistics rose as a total of 1.11 million passengers comprising of 556,297 arrivals and 554,220 departures in was recorded in March.

FAAN’s report shows that about 2.56 million passengers traveled within the country, while 42,905 domestic flights were operated across the nation’s 22 airports during the period.

This shows a sign of rising traffic at Nigerian Airports when compared to the previous year. For domestic air travelers, domestic Aircraft movements increased by 11.2% in 2018 year-on-year.

A total of 951,128 passengers traveled into and out of the country (international) through the airports during the period under review. On the other hand, 11,095 international flights were operated across the nation’s airports during the period.

The 2018 full year report shows that a total of international aircrafts movements for 2018 increased by 38.8%, as against the 9.16% growth of 2017.