The recession trailing the nation’s economy is not isolating any sector as latest report from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has shown that the aviation sector recorded a decline of nine per cent in activities in the second quarter of this year.
The NBS in its report on the aviation sector explained that the numbers of travellers, aircraft, cargo weight as well as mails that were moved during the period declined as against what were recorded in the first quarter of the year.
The report, made available yesterday revealed that 54,405 aircraft arrived at, or departed from Nigerian airports in the second quarter of this year.
According to the report, the development represented a marked decrease of nine per cent relative to the 59,808 aircraft recorded in the first quarter.
In terms of passenger traffic, the report stated that this dropped marginally to 3,532,775 passengers in the second quarter of this year from 3,549,360 recorded in the first quarter.
In both first and second quarters of this year, domestic travels recorded a smaller growth rate than international travels.
It said there were 2,475,448 domestic passengers in the first quarter of 2016 and 2,411,251 in the second quarter, representing quarterly decline of 9.1 per cent and 2.6 per cent, respectively.
“Nigerian aviation recorded a decline in activity between the first half of 2016 and the second half of 2015, both in terms of the numbers of travellers and aircraft, and the weight of cargo and mail moved.
“A total of 59,808 aircraft arrived at, or departed from Nigerian airports in the first quarter of 2016, a decrease of 6.6 per cent relative to the previous quarter, and of 7.7 per cent relative to the first quarter of 2015,” the NBS report said.
