FAAN predicts upsurge in passenger, cargo traffic in 2016

No fewer than 1,300,497 passengers flew through the country’s 22 airports in the last quarter of 2015. A breakdown of this figure showed that 316,680 was recorded for the month of September, 318,503 for October, a steady growth was recorded in November which posted 328,652 while the last month of the year recorded another leap of 336,652 passengers.

General Manager Public Affairs, Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Yakubu Datti who disclosed this yesterday in an interview with The Guardian put the cargo movement at about 61.4 million.
His words, “In September, 2015, the figure for passenger movements in all the airports was 316, 680. The figure grew steadily to 318, 503 in October, 328,652 in November and 336,652 in December, 2015.
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.”

Datti noted that the above figures would increase significantly at the same period this year when most of the terminal and other related projects on-going at most of the airports in the country would have been completed and commissioned.

According to him, with improvements in terminal and airside facilities at these airports, a number of local airlines in the country have already started expanding their route network, some extending to the West Coast of Africa.

The general manager added that some foreign airlines with Lagos as their only destination have also begun to show interest in operating into Mallam Aminu Kano and Port Harcourt International Airports. He mentioned Qatar Air is one of such airlines, which according to him is the product of the recently signed Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) between Nigeria and Qatar.