Airlines rake in N390bn as airports record 13m passengers in 2021

As Nigerian roads remain insecure for travellers, local airlines may have raked in about N390 billion through ticket sales as 13 million passengers travelled through airports in 2021.

The number of passengers was obtained from the Air Transportation report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released on Wednesday.

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In 2021, air tickets sold at an average of N30,000 for economy tickets while business tickets sold for an average of N60,000.

Checks by Daily Trust also showed that during the yuletide season, air fares usually surge to almost double the figure as a result of the demand to travel.

According to the NBS, the figure represents an increase of 43.41 per cent compared to the nine million recorded in 2020.

The NBS stated that there were 6.5m arrivals in 2021, higher than 4.9m recorded in 2020. Similarly, departure stood at 6.5m in 2021 compared to 4.2m in 2020.

It said that 2.2m international passengers passed through Nigerian airports in 2021, as against 1.4m passengers in 2020, which represents a 57.61% growth rate.

The Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport Abuja recorded a total of 4.76m domestic travellers, accounting for 37% of the passengers in 2021.

It was followed by the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos State had 4.09m domestic passengers, accounting for 31% of the total figures.

For the foreign travel, there was 1.1m arrivals in 2021 while passengers’ departure was at 1.1m, making it 2.2m foreign movements in 2021.

In the same vein, the foreign movement statistics showed that arrival in Q1 2021 was 212,977 while passengers’ departure stood at 222,453 in the same quarter. Similarly, second quarter 2021 recorded 220,171 (arrival) and 232,501 (departure).

In Q3 2021, passengers’ departure stood at 285,189, and arrival was 318,841. In Q4, the figure arrival stood at 391,284, and departure was at 335,730.

The surge in passenger traffic in the year has been predicted by stakeholders especially as widespread insecurity persists in the country, especially on the roads. Bandits and kidnappers have made Nigerian roads unsafe, leaving many Nigerians with no option than to travel by air.