Aviation contributes about $1bn to Nigerian economy annually- Dati

Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, FAAN general manager, public communications, Yakubu Dati told BusinessDay that aviation contributes about one billion naira to the Nigerian economy and employs over 150thousand people in the industry.

Dati explained that this numbers will shoot up very soon with the new terminal being constructed which will accommodate more passengers and business activities at the airports.

According to him, “Even while the new terminal is being constructed in Lagos, the old one has been expanded to meet up with the growing traffic and growing challenges. For instance, we have increased the checking counters from eight to about 40 at the International airport. We have also increased the number of conveyor belts to about eight and installed brand new ones.”

All these he said is to expand and make passenger facilitation easier, adding that FAAN is also building departure and arriving lounges, as well as work ways so that passengers who are departing will work on the left and those arriving, will work on the right

“The new terminal will be fitted with modern facilities for the disabled, escalators, elevators and all the modern things accompanying a new airport will be there. We are also building in Abuja, Kano, Port-Harcourt and Enugu. All these we are doing to ensure we play our role as the most populous country in Africa,” Dati added

He explained that the airport is a captive market, and that is why FAAN has leveraged on this to create a situation for people to come in and do business and most of the airport managers are also encouraged to look at areas where they can take non-aeronautical sources of revenues to be able to run the airports

“We usually encourage the airlines to also develop their flights. But it is purely their decision and it is a commercial venture. Some of them are looking at Kano to Port-Harcourt, to capture the trade there. Those are the areas we believe that if airlines begin to look at, they will make more money.”

“The number of people that go by buses from the North to the East in places like Kano, Onitsha and Aba for instance are still much. If we run hubs around these places, we are bound to capture those markets because they already exist. They can put their goods on the buses and take a flight,” Dati said.