Nigeria’s air passenger traffic rises 11.9% to 18.8m

The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, Mrs Olubunmi Onabanjo-Kuku, has disclosed that Nigeria recorded more than 18.8 million domestic and international air passengers in 2025, making it the fourth-largest aviation market in Africa.

Onabanjo-Kuku revealed the figure while delivering her welcome address at the ACI Africa Regional Conference and Exhibition 2026 in Abuja, where she spoke in her capacity as Vice-President of Airports Council International Africa.

According to her, the passenger volume represented an 11.9 per cent year-on-year increase, underscoring Nigeria’s growing importance in the African aviation market.

“Our aviation market now ranks as the fourth-largest in Africa, with over 18.8 million domestic and international passengers recorded in 2025, representing a year-on-year increase of 11.9 per cent,” she said.

The conference, themed “Next-Gen Airports: Driving Performance and Resilience,” brought together airport executives, aviation regulators, financiers, technology providers and other industry stakeholders from across Africa and beyond.

Onabanjo-Kuku described the theme as more than a conference slogan, saying it reflected an urgent need for African aviation stakeholders to prepare the continent’s airports for a rapidly changing industry.

“This gathering of minds, this convergence of vision, could not have come at a more consequential moment for African aviation. The theme before us, ‘Next-Gen Airports: Driving Performance and Resilience,’ is not merely a conference title. It is a strategic mandate. It is a call to action,” she said.

She cited recent industry data indicating continued expansion in African aviation, including International Air Transport Association figures showing a 6.4 per cent year-on-year increase in international passenger demand among African airlines in July 2026, against a 0.1 per cent decline globally during the same period.

Overall passenger demand in Africa also rose by 5.2 per cent during the period, she said, adding: “This is not a marginal improvement. This continent is on the move.”

She noted that Nigeria was contributing significantly to that growth, with increased scheduled airline capacity and renewed interest from international carriers.

The FAAN boss said the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, recorded the fastest growth in scheduled seat capacity among Africa’s 10 largest airports in September, with a 24.1 per cent increase. Nigeria’s total scheduled airline capacity for the month stood at 1.19 million seats, representing a 37.4 per cent increase over the corresponding period of the previous year.

She attributed the expansion partly to currency reforms, new aircraft leasing arrangements and increased confidence among international airlines.

She said, “Since the current Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development took office, several airlines have resumed operations in Nigeria, and more are expected soon,” she said.

But beyond the statistics, Onabanjo-Kuku said the industry’s growth had a human dimension. “These figures are not abstract. They represent millions of Africans connecting with family, doing business, accessing healthcare, and exploring opportunities. They represent livelihoods. They represent economic growth. They represent the future we are building together.”

Reacting to the development, industry expert Samuel Caulcrick said domestic airlines were not benefiting from the year-on-year increase in passenger traffic. He argued that increased traffic alone would mean little if Nigerian airlines remained commercially disadvantaged against foreign carriers.

According to him, the fundamental problem was not necessarily airport charges but the cost of capital available to competing airlines. Caulcrick said, “Without protectionism, Nigerian airlines are not protected against foreign carriers that dominate the market. Both pay the same charges, but foreign carriers have one decisive advantage: lower cost of capital. That is the entire imbalance.”

Onabanjo-Kuku also cautioned against interpreting rising passenger numbers as evidence that Africa’s aviation problems had been solved. Despite its huge population, she noted, Africa still accounts for only about one per cent of global air traffic.

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“In Nigeria alone, with a population exceeding 220 million, we record approximately 19.5 million passengers annually across 28 airports. The potential is vast, but the gap between where we are and where we could be remains substantial. This is not a reason for despair; it is a reason for deliberate, strategic action,” she said.

She identified funding constraints, infrastructure deficits, high operating costs, fragmented connectivity and the challenge of maintaining affordable airport charges while delivering modern facilities as persistent obstacles.

Against this backdrop, FAAN had concentrated on the basics such as safety, capacity and infrastructure while simultaneously pursuing digital transformation. “We have focused on the fundamentals: safe runways, functional terminals, and reliable systems,” she said.

She highlighted the rehabilitation of a major runway at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, terminal upgrades and improvements to airfield lighting, all undertaken while airport operations continued.

FAAN is also deploying digital systems, including faster check-in processes, automated e-passport gates, enhanced security systems and passenger-data analytics.

She said the authority also achieved ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015 certifications in January 2026, which Onabanjo-Kuku said reflected its commitment to quality management, environmental responsibility and continuous improvement.

“More than 3,500 FAAN personnel,” she added, “had undergone training and certification through International Civil Aviation Organisation and ACI programmes,” the FAAN boss added.

Also speaking at the conference, the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, said the next generation of airports must be built around resilience rather than simply expansion.

“The airport of the future cannot simply be a larger terminal building. A next-generation airport must be safe, efficient, financially sustainable, technologically enabled, environmentally responsible and capable of adapting to disruption,” Keyamo said.

He said airports must be prepared for pandemics, geopolitical tensions, economic shocks, climate events, cyber threats and infrastructure failures. He added, “Resilience therefore cannot be an afterthought. It must be designed into our airports, our systems, our business models and our institutions.”

Keyamo also stated that technology should serve passengers rather than overwhelm them, arguing that the ultimate test of an airport was the quality of the journey it provided.

“Technology is only meaningful when it makes a person’s journey safer, easier, faster and more dignified. We must therefore build smart airports with human hearts.”

The minister said the Federal Government was pursuing reforms aimed at strengthening safety, infrastructure, investment and connectivity, while citing Nigeria’s 91.45 per cent Effective Implementation score following the 2026 ICAO Coordinated Validation Mission.

He also pointed to the rehabilitation and expansion of Terminal 1 at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, describing it as an effort to transform a historic gateway into a modern and passenger-centred facility.

“An airport is not simply a place where aircraft land and take off. It is an economic ecosystem. It creates employment, supports tourism and logistics, attracts investment, facilitates trade and connects businesses to markets.”

He insisted that Nigeria was encouraging greater private-sector participation in airport infrastructure and services while supporting the development of Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul facilities, aircraft leasing, cargo infrastructure and other parts of the aviation value chain.

The minister, however, called for stronger intra-African connectivity, arguing that it should not be easier to fly from one African city to a destination outside the continent than to another African city.