There are strong indications that there will be significant upsurge in passenger, cargo and aircraft traffic in Nigerian airports by the last quarter of this year, when most of the terminal and other related projects at these airports would have been completed and commissioned.
This is coupled with improvements in terminal and airside facilities at these airports.
Some of these airport terminals are located in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Kano and Abuja
In preparation for the upsurge, a number of local airlines in the country have already started expanding their route network while others are extending to the West Coast of Africa.
These indications were further confirmed by the General Manager, Public Affairs, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria(FAAN),Mr Yakubu Dati at the weekend.
He explained that already some foreign airlines with Lagos as their only destination have also begun to show interest in operating into Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA), Kano and Port Harcourt International Airport (PHIA) thereby having multiple entries into the country.
Speaking further, he stated that only recently Nigeria signed Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) with Qatar and that what that means is that Qatar Airways would any moment have multiple entries into Nigeria.
He added that available record showed that there was significant increase in passenger, aircraft and cargo traffic at Nigerian airports, towards the end of last year,. especially those managed by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN)
Dati stated that for example in September, last year, the figure for passenger movements in all the airports was 316, 680.,adding that the figure grew steadily to 318, 503 in October, 328,652 in November and 336,652 in December, 2015.
The FAAN spokesman noted that during the same period in 2015, cargo movements grew steadily from 13, 504, 252 in September, 15, 435, 842 in October, 16, 102, 686 and 16, 267, 208 in December.
He stated that one of the factors likely to influence the growth of passenger and cargo traffic this year is the completion of cargo terminals at designated airports across the country.
AbelNews recalled that Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi at a press briefing after the inspection of facilities at the international wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA), Lagos, has said that the new terminals at the four international airports under construction in the country would be completed by December 2016.
The airports are those in Lagos, Kano, Abuja and Port Harcourt.
Amaechi further disclosed that after completion, the international wing of MMA, Would generate 15 million passengers, while the other airports after completion would equally generate 15 million, bringing total traffic to 30 million annually.
