Nigeria’s Air Travel Surges 11.9% to 18.8 Million Passengers

Nigeria’s Air Travel Surges 11.9 % to 18.8 Million Passengers

The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, Mrs Olubunmi Onabanjo-Kuku, has actually divulged that Nigeria tape-recorded more than 18.8 million domestic and worldwide air travelers in 2025, making it the fourth-largest air travel market in Africa.

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

According to her, the traveler volume represented an 11.9 percent year-on-year boost, highlighting Nigeria’s growing significance in the African air travel market.

“Our air travel market now ranks as the fourth-largest in Africa, with over 18.8 million domestic and global travelers tape-recorded in 2025, representing a year-on-year boost of 11.9 percent,” she stated.

The conference, themed “Next-Gen Airports: Driving Performance and Resilience,” united airport executives, air travel regulators, investors, innovation service providers and other market stakeholders from throughout Africa and beyond.

Onabanjo-Kuku explained the style as more than a conference motto, stating it showed an immediate requirement for African air travel stakeholders to prepare the continent’s airports for a quickly altering market.

“This event of minds, this merging of vision, might not have actually come at a more substantial minute for African air travel. The style before us, ‘Next-Gen Airports: Driving Performance and Resilience,’ is not simply a conference title. It is a tactical required. It is a call to action,” she stated.

She mentioned current market information suggesting ongoing growth in African air travel, consisting of International Air Transport Association figures revealing a 6.4 percent year-on-year boost in global traveler need amongst African airline companies in July 2026, versus a 0.1 percent decrease internationally throughout the very same duration.

Total traveler need in Africa likewise increased by 5.2 percent throughout the duration, she stated, including: “This is not a limited enhancement. This continent is on the relocation.”

She kept in mind that Nigeria was contributing considerably to that development, with increased arranged airline company capability and restored interest from worldwide providers.

The FAAN employer stated the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, tape-recorded the fastest development in scheduled seat capability amongst Africa’s 10 biggest airports in September, with a 24.1 percent boost. Nigeria’s overall arranged airline company capability for the month stood at 1.19 million seats, representing a 37.4 percent boost over the matching duration of the previous year.

She associated the growth partially to currency reforms, brand-new airplane renting plans and increased self-confidence amongst global airline companies.

She stated, “Since the existing Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development took workplace, numerous airline companies have actually resumed operations in Nigeria, and more are anticipated quickly,” she stated.

Beyond the stats, Onabanjo-Kuku stated the market’s development had a human measurement. “These figures are not abstract. They represent countless Africans getting in touch with household, operating, accessing health care, and checking out chances. They represent incomes. They represent financial development. They represent the future we are developing together.”

Responding to the advancement, market specialist Samuel Caulcrick stated domestic airline companies were not gaining from the year-on-year boost in guest traffic. He argued that increased traffic alone would imply little if Nigerian airline companies stayed commercially disadvantaged versus foreign providers.

According to him, the essential issue was not always airport charges however the expense of capital readily available to completing airline companies. Caulcrick stated, “Without protectionism, Nigerian airline companies are not secured versus foreign providers that control the marketplace. Both pay the exact same charges, however foreign providers have one definitive benefit: lower expense of capital. That is the whole imbalance.”

Onabanjo-Kuku likewise warned versus analyzing increasing guest numbers as proof that Africa’s air travel issues had actually been resolved. Regardless of its big population, she kept in mind, Africa still represents just about one percent of international air traffic.

“In Nigeria alone, with a population surpassing 220 million, we tape-record roughly 19.5 million travelers each year throughout 28 airports. The capacity is huge, however the space in between where we are and where we might be stays considerable. This is not a factor for misery; it is a factor for intentional, tactical action,” she stated.

She recognized financing restraints, facilities deficits, high operating expense, fragmented connection and the difficulty of keeping budget friendly airport charges while providing contemporary centers as relentless barriers.

Versus this background, FAAN had actually focused on the essentials such as security, capability and facilities while all at once pursuing digital improvement. “We have actually concentrated on the principles: safe runways, practical terminals, and dependable systems,” she stated.

She highlighted the rehab of a significant runway at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, terminal upgrades and enhancements to airfield lighting, all carried out while airport operations continued.

FAAN is likewise releasing digital systems, consisting of quicker check-in procedures, automated e-passport gates, boosted security systems and passenger-data analytics.

She stated the authority likewise accomplished ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015 accreditations in January 2026, which Onabanjo-Kuku stated shown its dedication to quality management, ecological duty and constant enhancement.

“More than 3,500 FAAN workers,” she included, “had actually gone through training and accreditation through International Civil Aviation Organisation and ACI programs,” the FAAN manager included.

Speaking at the conference, the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, stated the next generation of airports need to be constructed around strength rather than merely growth.

“The airport of the future can not merely be a bigger terminal structure. A next-generation airport needs to be safe, effective, economically sustainable, highly allowed, ecologically accountable and efficient in adjusting to interruption,” Keyamo stated.

He stated airports need to be gotten ready for pandemics, geopolitical stress, financial shocks, environment occasions, cyber hazards and facilities failures. He included, “Resilience for that reason can not be an afterthought. It needs to be developed into our airports, our systems, our service designs and our organizations.”

Keyamo likewise mentioned that innovation ought to serve guests instead of overwhelm them, arguing that the supreme test of an airport was the quality of the journey it offered.

“Technology is just significant when it makes an individual’s journey more secure, simpler, much faster and more dignified. We should for that reason develop clever airports with human hearts.”

The minister stated the Federal Government was pursuing reforms focused on enhancing security, facilities, financial investment and connection, while pointing out Nigeria’s 91.45 percent Effective Implementation rating following the 2026 ICAO Coordinated Validation Mission.

He likewise indicated the rehab and growth of Terminal 1 at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, explaining it as an effort to change a historical entrance into a contemporary and passenger-centred center.

“An airport is not merely a location where airplane land and remove. It is a financial community. It develops work, supports tourist and logistics, draws in financial investment, assists in trade and links services to markets.”

He firmly insisted that Nigeria was motivating higher private-sector involvement in airport facilities and services while supporting the advancement of Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul centers, airplane leasing, freight facilities and other parts of the air travel worth chain.

The minister, nevertheless, required more powerful intra-African connection, arguing that it must not be simpler to fly from one African city to a location outside the continent than to another African city.