Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, and Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, recorded a total of 323,751 international passenger movement from January to March 2021.
The data obtained from the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) also indicates that the General Aviation Terminal (GAT) of Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA 1) Ikeja, recorded a passenger traffic of 1,235,709.
Another report by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) which also covers January to March of 2021 shows that foreign airlines operated 1,871 flights in and out of the country, while 14,662 flights operated on domestic routes.
The regulatory agency’s record shows that 19 foreign airlines operated within the first quarter. The carriers that operated to Nigeria within that period are African World, Air Cote d’Ivoire, Air France, Air Peace, ASKY Airline, British Airways, Delta Airline, Egypt Air, Emirates. Others are Ethiopian Airlines, Kenya Airways, KLM, Lufthansa, Middle East Airline, Qatar Air, Royal Air Maroc, RwandAir, Turkish Airline and Virgin Atlantic Airways.
On the domestic routes, nine scheduled airlines operated 14,662 flights. The operators were Aero, Arik, Azman, Dana Air, Overland Airways, Max Air, Ibom Air and United Nigeria Airline. NCAA records show that African World, Air Cote d’Ivoire, Air France, Air Peace, Egypt Air, Emirates, ASKY Kenyan Airlines, KLM, Lufthansa, Middle East Airline, RwandAir, Virgin Atlantic reported no complaints of lost baggage, flight delays, missing baggage, air return, cancelled flights among other issues.
Meanwhile, the GAT manager, Mr. Adekunle Aderibigbe, in a chat with reporters also revealed that between July 2020 and June 2021, the terminal recorded 14,079 aircraft movements and 1,235,709 passenger traffic.
Aderibigbe said, at the restart of operations after the eased lockdown, the passenger turn-out was low but that it has improved significantly.
Speaking on some of the new policies being enforced by FAAN,
he said, the authority has stopped ticketing agents from coming into the terminal building to reduce the crowd and passengers have been encouraged to go online to buy tickets instead of patronising touts.
