More Nigerians now travel by air as airports record 28.25% passenger in Q1
In what may be seen as a sign of improvement across the nation’s airports, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), disclosed that about 3.4 million passengers travelled through Nigerian airports during the first quarter of 2018 as against the 2.6 million passengers recorded in 2017 first quarter.
The feat represents a 28.25 percent growth from the same quarter in 2017 as First Quarter Report of FAAN made available to Business Hilights showed that 2.4 million passengers travelled within the country (domestic passengers), while a total of 950,292 passengers travelled out of and into Nigeria (international passengers) during the period.
FAAN also said that 1.6 million passengers were recorded at arrivals while 1.7 million passengers were recorded at the departures during the period under review.
The monthly breakdown showed that 1.1 million passengers comprising 800,609 domestic and 355,176 international passengers were recorded in the month of January.
According to the report, a look at airport by airport basis, Murtala Muhammed Airport recorded the highest number of passengers during the period with 1.5 million passengers comprising of 890,716 domestic and 678,839 international passengers.
Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport recorded 1.02 million passengers comprising of 822,109 domestic and 199,875 international passengers during the quarter.
Whereas the report further lay credence to a recent African aviation report that said Lagos-Abuja route came fourth amongst African air route traffic last year, FAAN report also showed that there were 55,031 aircraft movements during the period compared to the 44,997 aircraft movements recorded during the first quarter of 2017, showing a growth by 22.31 per cent.
