Louis Ibah

International and domestic airlines operating in Nigeria sold passenger tickets worth about N505.2billion in 2017, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) said on Thursday.    

The Director-General/CEO of the NCAA, Capt. Muhtar Usman, who stated this during the Quarterly Business Meeting of the Aviation Round Table (ART) in Lagos, said the country witnessed an increase in passenger traffic in 2017 as against the preceding 2016 with revenue from ticket sales by airlines increasing by 14.2 per cent (N82.7 billion more in 2017) compared to the N422.4 billion sold in 2016.

Ticket sales (domestic airlines) from January to December 2016 stood at N79.4 billion and international airline was N342.9 billion, thus bringing the total to N422.4 billion.

But in 2017, it was the 25 foreign airlines operating into Nigeria’s four international airports that made the most ticket sales of N411.6billion out of the N505.2billion leaving Nigeria’s eight domestic with a meagre N93.6 billion in ticket sales during the year under review.

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Usman, represented by Capt. Adamu Abdullahi, the Director, Consumer Complaints Directorate of the  NCAA, however said the revenue from ticket sales in 2017 could have been higher for the airlines but for the six-week closure of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja to facilitate the rehabilitate its runway.

He however said Nigeria’s eight domestic carrier performed better in 2017 in ticket sales owing to such factors as the resumption of flight activities to the Maiduguri Airport earlier closed due to insecurity, a stable forex regime that enabled more aircraft acquisition and maintenance, and the  effective implementation of the Executive Order on Ease of Doing Business.’’

He disclosed that domestic airlines in 2017 airlifted about 10 million passengers while international airlines passenger traffic stood at 4 million, bringing the total number of passenger traffic in Nigeria in 2017 to 14 million.

In order to boost safety in the operations of airlines in Nigeria, the NCAA said it sanctioned 90 airline personnel for safety infringement between 2014 and 2017.

Those sanctioned include 15 pilots, five cabin crew, four engineers, a private security firm, four aircraft maintenance organisations (AMOs) and five airlines.