Information released by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) show that the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos processed 1.03 million passengers between January and March 2021.
According to the agency, a total of 323,751 passengers out of which 149,557 and 174,194 passengers respectively arrived and departed through the international wing during the period
At the domestic wing, 402,519 passengers arrived while departure recorded 337,041 bringing the total on the domestic routes to 739,560 during the period.
A total of 17, 286 aircraft movement was recorded at the airport during period with a record of 12, 744 international movement and 4, 542 domestic.
Commenting on the statistics, airport manager, south west, Mrs. Victoria Shin-Aba said there was no significant drop as Lagos remained the business nerve centre of the country as most flights terminate at the airport.
She said there was a gradual reawakening from the COVID-19 even with the second wave not discouraging passengers from travelling.
“It is like a gradual reawakening, a gradual restart away from the COVID-19 issue came the second wave but that did not discourage people from travelling so, it is growing gradually,” she added.
On COVID-19 protocols, the airport manager stated, “You see I use to tell people that if there is one thing the airport has been able to do as soon as you get into the airport environment this COVID-19 protocol is activated. You can get to town everywhere, you don’t see people obeying it but as soon as you get to the airport, we enforce it, people would not want to cooperate but we are enforcing it but for staff and passengers, people are cooperating”.
“If you don’t put on your mask we wouldn’t allow you into the terminal building and even if you are in the terminal building and you remove it we have some task force going around correcting people please mask up, so there has been a lot of cooperation from the passengers as well as other airport users,” she said.
She also said COVID-19 had negatively affected the finances of FAAN.
“The disadvantage of COVID-19 is what affects us the most. It has affected our income as an organization; airlines are not coming back due to the pandemic, people are not travelling as they used to,” she said.
