Lagos leaps to 7th busiest international airport
- Records 7.3m traffic for 2019
The Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, is expected to leap to seventh position from ninth in the 2019 international passenger traffic when Africa’s passenger traffic figure for last year is released.
Lagos airport, within the period, recorded 7.3 million passengers for international passenger traffic.
Domestic air traffic figure for 2019 is yet to be collated and announced. The total figure for 2019 for both domestic and international is projected to hit over 16 million.
OR Tambo Airport, Johannesburg, South Africa, tops the chart for busiest international airport for 2018 with 21.23 million followed by Cairo International Airport with 15.01 million.
Others were Bole International Airport, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Cape Town International Airport, South Africa; Mohammed V International Airport, Casablanca, Morocco, Houari Bounedienne Airport, Algiers, Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi airport.
With the increase, Lagos airport international traffic comes behind OR Tambo, Cairo, Cape Town, Addis Ababa, Casablanca, Nairobi airports.
The Lagos airport was in 2018 ranked ninth among the busiest airports in the continent.
A total of 7.31 million passengers passed through the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA) Ikeja in 2019 while cargo movement was 187,494.338. 71kg during the period.
The news is very welcoming for the airport, having posted three years of consecutive cuts between 2015 and 2017.
The increase is helped by improvement in infrastructure, new visa policy by the Federal Government and the high yield Lagos and Nigerian route gives to foreign airlines occasioned by the country’s huge aviation market.
The impact of airline cutback at Lagos in recent years has resulted in the airport seeing passenger numbers dip below the seven million barrier.
In 2018, the same airport recorded a total of 6.86 million passengers with percentage increase of 6.66 while aircraft movement increased by 5.20 per cent from 91, 621 in 2018 to 96,373 in 2019. Cargo movement also recorded an increase
The Manager, South West Airports of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN,) Mrs Victoria Shin Aba, who disclosed this in her office at the MMIA Ikeja, said the airport had continued to record tremendous improvement with on-going constructions work.
Aba explained that apart from security issues witnessed last year, which are being addressed by government, safety issues would continue to be given priority, adding that all shortcomings were being studied with a view to adjusting them.
She explained that lessons had been learned from last year’s security challenges, saying that measures taken to address lapses included increase in patrol on air side with military men being drafted to areas where intruders were using.
On the new terminal building under construction, the MMA manager explained that the terminal when operational would provide seamless passenger facilitation, assuring that a total refurbishment of the over 40 years old MMA terminals would then commence.
She noted that the old terminal was over stretched, saying that it was built to accommodate two million passengers but ended up taking seven million.
According to her, “a total refurbishment will be carried out at old terminal because it is over 40 years old and its structure does not conform with the security in ground today.”
Lagos is the most populous city in Nigeria, with it being home to around 21 million people. The city is served by Murtala Muhammed International Airport which sits 11 kilometres from the centre.
In terms of available departing seat capacity last year, Lagos is presently Africa’s seventh largest airport. The aerodrome offered 4.72 million one-way seats in 2018.
With regard to Africa’s leading airports, Lagos was projected for second best for growth in 2018, with it reporting a 7.4 per cent rise in seats for 2018, only being beaten by Addis Ababa (Africa’s third largest airport with regards to departing seats; 8.67 million) which is forecasting a 19 per cent growth rate.
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