Passenger Traffic Shrinks Further in 2017

Despite the fact that Nigeria’s economic recession peaked in 2016, there were more air passengers who travelled through the nation’s airports in the first quarter of 2016 than in 2017.

In the first quarter of last year, only 59, 808 travelled through the airports but it is still more than the passengers that travelled in the first quarter of 2017, which is a meagre 41, 932; but the total passenger traffic in 2016 was 14, 564,722.

Sources at the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) said that from the traffic figures so far this year, there would be less number of air passengers in 2017 compared to 2016.

But in the last 13 years, there have been progress in the passenger traffic and according to data from FAAN made available to THISDAY, there has been a leap in passenger traffic from 2004 till date; although passenger traffic shrunk in 2016 compared to the previous year, but there are indications that it would shrink further this year.

In 2004, the total passenger traffic from Nigerian airports was 8,140, 088, but there was less number of air travellers in 2005, which recorded 8, 310, 415 passengers and further depleted in the following year to about 8, 207, 563 in 2006.

In 2007 passenger traffic rose to 8, 474, 287 and further increased in 2008 to about 10, 829, 572 and in 2009 it increased to 12, 526, 464; it rose further in 2010 to 13, 939, 418.

This progressive increase from 2010 has been attributed to turnaround in the nation’s economy by industry operators who noted that with more money available due to the robust economy, the tendency to travel was high because Nigerians like to travel.

In 2011 the passenger traffic rose further to 14, 760, 276; in 2012 it shrank to 14, 113, 077 and rose again in 2013 to 14, 632, 788 and in 2014 it edged to 15, 335, 722.

In 2015 passenger rose to 15, 222, 187 and shrank to 14, 564, 722.

The total passenger traffic from 2004 to 2016 was about 185, 532, 305.

Industry observers posit that there could be little progress in the passenger movement over the years but considering the population of Nigeria, the figures are small because of low income and limited funds available to majority of Nigerians, only a small segment travel, “because if you are writing the names of the people that travel you will notice that it is the same number of people that travel and this is less than one percent of the total population.”

A senior FAAN official told THISDAY on Wednesday that the economy is down; that it would be erroneous to compare

the passenger traffic with the population of the country; rather, it should be looked at from the point of the economy.

“The economy is bad. It is the economy that determines the movement of passengers; so it is not a function of the population. It is difficult to obtain foreign exchange; there has been downturn in cargo movement and in aircraft movement”.

The official noted that many airlines have stopped coming to Nigeria, including cargo airlines and passenger airlines like Iberia and United Airlines. THISDAY also learnt that cargo planes rarely carry full cargo for Nigeria these days like in the past, “but now a cargo plane coming to Nigeria may drop some cargo in Ghana, Ivory Coast or any other neighbouring country before coming to Nigeria because we cannot afford huge cargo anymore.”

According to an official of one of the major handling companies at the Lagos airport, there has been a drastic reduction of cargo in the last three years, “starting from second quarter of 2015. Our work rate has slowed; so also our revenue. The airlines we service have been reviewing downwards the cost of our service.”