Nigeria’s top airports, MMA, process one million passengers in Q1, 2021
Over one million passengers were processed through the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Ikeja, Lagos (international and Domestic) by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) between January and March this year. Statistics obtained from the airport revealed that a total of 323,751 passengers, out of which 149,557 passengers and 174,194 passengers, arrived and departed through the international wing respectively during the period At the domestic wing, 402,519 arrived while departure recorded 337,041 bringing the total number of passengers on the domestic routes to 739,560 between January and March.
A total of 17, 286 aircraft were recorded at the airport during the first quarter of the year with records showing domestic aircraft movements 12,744 while international aircraft movement was 4,542.
Victoria Shin-Aba, airport manager South West, commenting on the statistics, said there was no significant drop as Lagos remained the business nerve centre of the country as most flights terminates at the airport.
Shin-Aba explained that there was a gradual reawakening from the Covid even with the second wave not discouraging passengers from travelling.
“It is like a gradual reawakening, a gradual restart away from the Covid issue, there came the second wave but that did not discourage people from travelling so, it is growing gradually”
On Covid protocols, the airport manager remarked: “You see, I always 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 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, however, noted with displeasure the number of family members escorting their travelling passenger to the airport.
“We have been having some challenges along that area, you know our culture the way we do things, one person is travelling, ten people will follow but we still try as much as possible to discourage people,” she said. The airport manager noted that the challenge they were having with VIP’s parking indiscriminately at the departure area have reduced as there was a task force in place consisting of other security agencies that advise them to move down.
Shin-Aba revealed that there were a lot of security arrangements, layers of security both at the landside and airside put in place with regular meeting of the security committee
“We have a standing airport security committee that meets regularly and when there is any red alert we come together to strategist how to best work it out in preventing any occurrence and honestly, we have very good synergy between the security agencies even the Airforce, we have a nice synergy, though we have military airport commandant but then even the tactical air command they work with us, we have the commissioner of police airport command, the director of security services and comptroller of immigration, comptroller of customs, we all come together and synergize, share information so that we are not caught unawares,” she explained.
She lamented the poor power supply to the airport saying that of the two power stations feeding the airport, Ejigbo and Isolo, Ejigbo has been down for some time, and had led to poor power supply.
She explained that the Covid pandemic has negatively affected the finances of the organisation. “The disadvantage of covid that 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.
“For the advantage, let me say the consciousness and the new normal doing things in a different way, people now can come from home though our environment really doesn’t encourage that, our own is services you have to move, you have to meet people, you have to work but all the same, meetings now are done virtually,” she further said. She advised passengers to reduce the number of people coming to the airport with them and get to the airport on time as a result of protocols adding that they were working to ensure passengers comfort, safety and security of every airport user.