Evolution Of Aviation In Nigeria: From Accidental Landing To Air Growth To Deficiency In Infrastructure

From the accidental landing of the first aircraft in Kano in 1925 to decades of ambition, expansion, and turbulence, Nigeria’s aviation industry has charted a journey of resilience and missed opportunities. In this edition of Transportation Agenda, our aviation correspondent, Pakuli Panam Danjuma, examines the milestones, Federal Government interventions, and the lingering infrastructure challenges that continue to shape the sector’s growth and future.

Air transport has long been a catalyst for economic growth and national development, and Nigeria’s aviation journey is no exception. While organised air travel in the country began during World War II (1939–1945) driven by the need to swiftly move troops and suppliesits story truly started much earlier, almost by chance.

A century ago, on November 1, 1925, a pioneering flight led by Flight Lieutenant (later Air Marshal) Sir Arthur Coningham landed in Kano, marking the first aircraft to touch Nigerian soil. This historic journey, which took off from Helwan in Egypt and passed through Sudan and N’Djamena (then Fort Lamy, Chad), was less about scheduled flights and more about testing the possibilities of aviation technology and exploring the African landscape.

The British Empire’s administration saw this as an opportunity to evaluate the potential of opening Africa to civil aviation, while also gaining experience in long-haul flights over tropical regions. The arrival of Coningham and his crew was celebrated with fanfare, as they were warmly received by the Emir of Zazzau in Kaduna State. After the war, several of the airstrips built for military purposes were converted to civilian use, setting the stage for the growth of Nigeria’s aviation industry.

But, since the first flight landed in Kano, the sector has evolved over the years. It has gone past just a place where the first commercial airplane landed to a multi-billion-dollar industry and one that has contributed to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), even though its contribution is very little compared to other sectors of the economy.

Despite its slow growth, the sector still suffers from a poor reputation for operational efficiency and infrastructure challenges. This is attested to by the present state of the industry.

Current available statistics and data from the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) on International and Domestic Flight Operations 2024, showed a decline in passenger traffic.

The passenger movement in 2024 indicated that local and foreign – inbound and outboard, declined to 15,655,273 in 2024 from 15.8 million passengers in 2023, while the traffic also recorded 16.4 million in 2022.

On the international scene, the sector recorded a total of 4,135,830 passengers as inbound and outbound.

For the domestic scene, the nation’s 15 scheduled operators recorded 11, 549,443 passengers.

Further breakdown showed that for the inbound passengers on the international scene, Nigeria recorded 2,018,948, while the outbound was 2,116,882.

The statistics indicated that the country, just like in the last three years, had continued to record more outbound on the international scene than inbound.

However, Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Kano airports remain the quadrilateral busiest airports in the country over the years.

Nigeria’s air transport sector is facing challenges with mild growth since its birth in 1925 because of several factors.

These factors include absence of a coherent air transport policy, bad management, decaying facilities, loose security, closure of airports and intermittent air crashes.

Nigeria Airways Formation

The setting up of the defunct national carrier, Nigeria Airways Ltd (NAL), helped to speed up growth of the air transport industry in Nigeria.

Nigerian Airways was established in October, 1958 as a Joint Venture between the Nigerian Government, Elder Dempster Lines and the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC).

The airline took over the operation of domestic flights from the disbanded West African Airways Corporation (WAAC), which had been operating commercial aircraft within the country since 1946.

In 1963, the Federal Government bought out the other shareholders and Nigeria Airways became wholly-owned by the Nigerian government.

The airline had a monopoly for providing domestic air services in Nigeria. It was also the national flag carrier for international services along the West African Coast, Europe and the United States of America.

In 1976 Nigeria Airways operated a fleet of 19 aircraft consisting of two each of Boeings 707 and 737 and one DC 10-30 aircraft used mainly for international flights. There were seven F28 Jets and seven Folder F27 propeller aircraft used mainly on domestic routes.

The Nigerian Federal Government realising the role of air transport in the nation’s development made significant attempts to develop the country’s air transport system.

The most gigantic was the 1975-1980 airport development programme which saw the construction of the Murtala Mohammed Airport complex at the cost of N240 million.

Six other airports in Kano, Ilorin, Kaduna, Sokoto, Port Harcourt and Maiduguri were developed to accommodate the largest intercontinental aircraft. Apart from these airports development programmes, the Federal Government also intensified manpower development in the aviation industry.

Deregulation of Airline Sub-sector

Rising passenger traffic and the inability of the defunct NAL to meet the need to operate to many airports, which were newly completed in many state capitals in the federation, prompted the Federal Government in early 1988 to deregulate the air transport sub-sector.

Before then, NAL had enjoyed a monopoly, providing mediocre services to passengers, characterised by delays, flight cancellations and over booking.

The memory still lingers of the incidents recorded at different times and at different airports, where passengers had to scramble for seats, jostle for the air stairs from the queues.

By 1999 when the country returned to civil rule after 15 years of military rule, starting from December 31, 1983, except the three months of Chief Earnest Shonekan, August 27, 1993 to November 18, 1993 as Interim National Government (ING), Nigeria Airways was almost a forgotten story.

Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, the then President of Nigeria, in one of his broadcasts, which led to the liquidation of Nigeria Airways in 2004, painted a sordid situation of the former national carrier.

The airline had ceased operations in 2003 and had a debt of $528 million hanging on its neck, despite the injection of $200 million on it by the Federal Government to enhance its operations.

He said: “When I was leaving office in 1979, Nigeria Airways had 29 serviceable aircraft, flying to various regional, African and international routes. In fact, the airline was healthy, but when I returned 20 years later, Nigeria Airways had just two aircraft that were managing to fly.

“Apart from this, the airline had unpaid debts all over the world and its aircraft were seized in Europe for its failure to pay its debts. Nigeria cannot continue to keep an entity like this. The only thing we could do was to liquidate the carrier.”

One of Nigeria Airways aircraft for instance, was seized in Belgium due to unpaid fees and later caught fire, which resulted in the destruction of the aircraft in the European country.

However, deregulation in Nigeria’s domestic air transport sector was to meet the needs of passengers and incidentally a red flag to the national carrier, Nigeria Airways, which had never been efficiently run and managed by officials of the airline, especially government appointees.

The deregulation of the market gave birth to privately owned commercial airlines like Okada, which pioneered the market along with Kabo airlines. They were followed by EAS, ADC, Triax, and Oriental.

Later, the likes of Bellview, Sosoliso, ADC, Fresh, Harco, Albarka, Harka, Slok Air, Argonaut Airlines, Comet Airlines, Fassey Royal Limited, GAS Airlines, Wind Air, Capital Airline, Skyline, Rite Time Aviation, Freedom, Dasab, Savanna, Chrome, Skypower Express, Premium Air Shuttle, Savannah, Merchant Express, Afrijet, Selcon Airline, Chanchangi Airlines, Discovery, Med-View, Dana Air, Azman Air and many others, joined but exited the stage gradually.

Today, Nigeria has 12 scheduled airlines, which are Aero Contractors (the oldest Nigerian airline still flying), Arik Air, NG Eagle, XEJet, ValueJet, Air Peace, Enugu Air, Max Air, Overland, Ibom Air, United Nigeria and Green Africa.

Infrastructure challenges

Today the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) manages 22 airports owned by the Federal Government, in addition to about six airports owned by states and handed over to the agency, while the other four – Asaba Airport, Enugu Airport, Osubi Airport and Ibom Airport are still being managed by the various states.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) also said that due to the fast-growing passenger traffic projected to rise to 7.8 billion in 2036, there is a need to urgently address infrastructure challenges in the sector in some countries, including Nigeria in order to secure the industry’s future.

Experts’ Verdicts On Aviation In Nigeria

Capt. Ado Sanusi, the Managing Director, Aero Contractors, the oldest airline in Nigeria, in an exclusive interview with Transportation Agenda, said that the industry had recorded some developments since the first aircraft landed in Kano State, but said its growth was lukewarm when compared to its counterparts, even within the continent.

According to him, the sector had recorded its own ups and downs with air crashes involving tens of airlines and the poor infrastructure across the country.

Sanusi also regretted the liquidation of Nigeria Airways, suggesting that rather than liquidation, the government ought to have privatised the carrier and kept it as an ongoing concern.

The Aero Contractors’ Chief Executive Officer (CEO), further said that the Federal Government had complied with the separation of aviation agencies with the creation of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and others.

But he observed a contraction in “authority” ascribed to FAAN, saying that the only agency, which had the approved “authority” was the NCAA as the regulator of civil aviation in Nigeria.

He said: “FAAN still feels that they are an authority in the airport. They feel that they are the regulators of the airport and the Act that sets them up suggests FAAN as an authority. So, until we rectify that and FAAN becomes a holding company, then we have not achieved much in the evolution of the parastatals.

“The regulator is the NCAA. Over 100 years, we have come a long way to demarcate FAAN, NCAA and NAMA. We have left FAAN with some powers that are supposed to be vested in the NCAA, we can’t have two authorities in the aviation industry.”

Sanusi further expressed inadequate funding as the major challenge confronting the agencies in the sector, maintaining that the government was taxing the airlines to fund the agencies in contravention of the ICAO document on ‘Cost Recovery.’

Also, Mr. Fortune Idu, Managing Director, FCI International, in an interview with Transportation Agenda, said that most of the nation’s airports lacked state-of-the-art facilities that could make the sector a hub on the continent.

Idu expressed regret that deterioration of the airport’s land infrastructure and unplanned partition and allocation of federal airport space have been on the rise in the last decades, thereby creating more challenges to the airline operators.

According to him, the airports’ gestation period was 25 years, but said most of the nation’s airports are about 40 years old without major expansion, while their master plans for future development were indiscriminately distorted with “construction of bungalows.”

He added: “The future of airports and the prosperity of any state depends on that so-called available land. Airports are special economic zones.

“The development, financial structure and the process cannot be spontaneous. It must be planned, preconceived and programmed. It is called a designated built environment.”

Also, Mr. Olumide Ohunayo, Head, Research and Corporate Travel, Zenith Consult, said the only way out of infrastructure decays at the nation’s airports was for the government to adopt the Public Private Partnership (PPP) scheme in the sector.

Ohunayo noted that inadequate funding by the government had led to poor maintenance culture at most of the airports, which made the nation’s airports to consistently receive low ratings in the world.

He, however, said that for this to be achieved, the government must be transparent and carry out robust and independent economic regulation supported by effective industry consultations with stakeholders and industry unions.

He declared that the challenges facing Nigerian airports were beyond budgetary allocation from the Federal Government, saying that the organisation managing the airports lacked transparency while it was yet to convince reputable investors to invest in the project.

The Zenith Travel boss, decried that all concessions in the industry had been enmeshed in controversies, which queried their processes from the outset, noting that in order to have a successful PPP, all parties involved must be humble enough to accept correction where needed.

Ohunayo added that government agencies like the Bureau for Public Enterprises, Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, National Council on Privatisation, Due Process Unit, Bureau for Public Procurement, Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority and the ministry of Transport had to get their acts together when signing any legal document on behalf of the government.

He said: “The non-availability of a verifiable financial statement over the years, frequent changes in management and leadership in the supervising ministry are other contributory factors.

“In correcting these problems; the government has embarked on various PPP processes in the past while most of them failed, those surviving are cantankerous and bedeviled with numerous litigations and arm twisting.

“Companies that have been badly bruised by our past PPPs include Aero port Gateway, HIC, Maevis, Pan African Express; Standerton, Nigerian Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO) and Bi-Courtney Company among others.”

Also, Dr. Allen Onyema, the Managing Director, Air Peace, in an interview with our correspondent, said that lack of adequate infrastructure at the nation’s airports, particularly at the major aerodromes, has led to growing concern among air travellers.

Onyema, specifically cited the Lagos domestic airport where he said there was provision for only one scanning machine for travellers, which he insisted causes delay for airlines.

He also emphasised that lack of adequate infrastructure, particularly at the Lagos airport, had denied the airport of being an effective hub of aviation in West Africa.

The Air Peace promoter, lamented that navigating the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, to the domestic wing, was very cumbersome, considering that there is no light rail or efficient and effective transport system that links the two terminals.

He said: “When we look at the infrastructure in Nigeria, aviation infrastructure, it is far behind where we need to be. And we need to aspire to the global standard of excellence.

“In Singapore and Dubai, their governments have harnessed aviation as a tool for economic development. Deliberately, decisively, they have taken aviation, this is what is going to develop our economy.

“We are talking about Dubai, is it as big as Lagos? Singapore, I am sure you can fit it in Lagos State. If there is no aviation, will we be talking about Dubai? We would not be talking of Singapore if not for the amazing aviation industry. It is a hub in Asia, a major hub.

“What is the population of Singapore? In Nigeria, we have 180 million people of entrepreneurs and I am talking from the board chairman to the market woman or man. They are all business people, they fly. I have been at Murtala Muhammed Airport and profile passengers, young men and women travelling to China. It is amazing. It is marvelous. I do not see it in South Africa.”

Galloping 121.7m passenger traffic in eight years

Since the deregulation of air transportation in the 1980s, air passenger traffic has increased across the country from merely six million to an average of 15 million per annum, while the airports too have increased from 19 to about 30 within the same period.

Between 2017 till December 31, 2024, no fewer than 121,740,971 air travellers passed through the country’s airports and aerodromes, according to a comprehensive statistic obtained from the NCAA.

Also, within the same period, Nigeria recorded over two million aircraft movements across its local and foreign routes among indigenous and international airlines.

The breakdown of the report indicated that in 2017, domestic passengers were 9,838,899, while the international traffic was 4,007,513, totaling 13,846,412 within the period.

For 2018, the country recorded a total number of 16,374,086 passengers, indicating 11,941,364 for domestic and 4,432,722 for international passengers.

The 16,374,086 passenger movement for 2018 indicated 18.26 percent when compared to the same period in 2017.

Besides, in 2019, Nigeria recorded a total of 17,580,023 passengers with 12,951,670 and 4,628,353 for domestic and international traffic, respectively.

The 2019 traffic just like the previous year was a boost when compared to the 2018 passenger movement, showing 7.36 percent increase.

However, for 2020, passenger movement declined drastically by 39.33 percent, which could be attributed to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic that crippled the global economies.

Recall that in 2020, the Federal Government shut the airspace for three months to curb the spread of the pandemic, while the international gateways were shut for about five months.

The total passenger figure for 2020 was 10,666,357, indicating 9,069,295 for domestic travel and 1,597,062 for international travel.

Also, the total passenger traffic for 2021 stood at 15,320,822, showing 13,006,481 for domestic travel and 2,321,341 for the international routes.

The 2021 traffic indicated an increase of 43.64 per cent when compared to the previous year of 2020.

For the 2022, passenger air traffic, Nigeria recorded 16.4 million passengers both in the domestic and the international scene, which was the peak after the Covid-19 pandemic.

For 2023 travel, Nigeria recorded 15.9 million from January till December, while the 2024 figure was 15.6 million figure, indicating a decline of 300,000 passengers.

Last Lap

The Nigerian aviation industry is key to major economic growth of the country if the government could harness the opportunities offered by the sector.

FAAN in its statistics, said that the sector currently contributes approximately $1.7 billion to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

FAAN attributed this to increased private sector involvement, which had transformed the aviation landscape through infrastructure upgrades, airline fleet expansion, digital innovation and improved service delivery by all service providers, including FAAN, NAMA and ground handling companies, among others.

Also, IATA in its 2023 statistics, said that as a major employer, the aviation sector supports 159,000 jobs in Nigeria. This total comprises: 44,000 jobs directly supported by the aviation sector; 64,000 jobs indirectly supported through the aviation sector supply chain and 51,000 jobs supported through the spending by the employees of the aviation sector and its supply chain.

Also, there are about 130,000 people employed through the catalytic (tourism) effects of aviation, while an average air transport services employee generates N3.5 million in Gross Value Added (GVA) annually, which is nearly seven times more productive than the average in Nigeria.

It also said that the aviation sector pays over N8.5 billion in tax including income tax receipts from employees, social security contributions and corporation tax levied on profits, with a further N17.0 billion of revenue coming from Value Added Tax (VAT) on domestic and international flights originating in Nigeria, while another NGN 8.9 billion of government revenue is estimated to be raised via the aviation sector supply chain.

Another N7.1 billion through taxation of the activities supported by the spending of employees of both the aviation sector and its supply chain, IATA said.