Against the backdrop of the growing interest by state governments to build new airports despite not being economically viable, the National Bureau of Statics (NBS) has revealed that about seven international airports in Nigeria have recorded no passengers at all in the first quarter of 2014 while Lagos and Abuja airports recorded highest.
The airports with zero patronage include International airports in Calabar, Ilorin, Kaduna, Sokoto, Maiduguri, Minna and Katsina.
However, a total of 3,416,977 passengers travelled using Nigerian airports in the first quarter of 2014. Out of this number, 2,352,224 or 68.84 per cent of them travelled locally, whereas 1,064,753 or 31.16 per cent travelled overseas.
Murtala Mohammed Airport, Lagos, was rated the busiest airport in the country with 1,683,375 passengers or 49.27 per cent followed by Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, with 907,989 passengers, or 26.57 per cent.
According to the NBS report, this was very similar to the share of 68.81 per cent observed for domestic passenger traffic on average in 2013.
“The above ranking is observed for both domestic and foreign bound passengers too. For domestic flights, Murtala Muhammed Airport had 898,896 passengers or 38.21 per cent of the total and Abuja had 701,249 passengers or 29.81 per cent of the total. Port Harcourt had a significant number of 274,186 passengers or 11.66 per cent of all passenger traffic, while Owerri Airport in Imo State had 75,356 passengers or 3.20 per cent of the total.
International passenger traffic is even more dominated by Lagos, with 784,479 passengers or 73.68 per cent of all overseas bound passengers passing through this airport. Abuja still ranks second, although with a lesser number of 205,740 passengers or 19.42 per cent of the total. Only Kano and Port Harcourt international airports had portions of the total of over 1 per cent, with 37,261 passengers or 3.50 per cent of the total flying through Kano and Port Harcourt,” the report said.

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