FAAN encourages airlines to decongest Lagos traffic

The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has called on airline operators and air travellers (especially on international routes) to divert some of their traffic to other airports outside Lagos, and take advantage of the newly constructed terminals to boost their operations.

This, according to FAAN, would put the newly commissioned terminals in Port Harcourt International Airport (PHIA), Omegwa and the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja to maximum use.

The authority said in line with this decongestion move, Turkish Airlines and Emirates have indicated their readiness to commence scheduled flight operations from PHIA and NAIA, respectively from June, while Air Peace would also begin direct flight to Dubai from PHIA as from April this year.

Speaking with aviation correspondents in Lagos recently, FAAN’s General Manager on Corporate Affairs, Mrs. Henrietta Yakubu, explained that it was necessary to divert traffic from Lagos to other airports within the country, but noted that Lagos would remain the hub of airports in Nigeria.

According to her, rather than having all the airlines do their flight schedules at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, they could also make use of the state-of-the-art facilities in other aerodromes across the country, with a view to improving the flying experiences of intending travellers in the country.

She stressed that nearness of these new terminals to travellers would help them in making their travel arrangements by being time-conscious and overcoming other hassles that could make them miss their flights.

Accordingly,” Turkish Airlines would commence direct flight from its base to PHIA from June 25, while Emirates would increase its four weekly flights to daily to Dubai Airport from NAIA from June 1”, she said.

She added that following in the same vein, Cronos Air operates three weekly frequencies; Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays from PHIA, while Lufthansa Airlines flies four times weekly; Mondays, Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays from the same airport.

Also, Air France operates five weekly flights; Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesday, Fridays and Sundays, stressing that the Turkish flights would be operated four times weekly on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, starting from June 25, 2019 from the same airport.

Apart from the foreign airlines, the Nigeria’s bourgeoning airline, Air Peace, would also commence direct flight operations to Accra from Abuja, while scheduled flights between Port Harcourt and Dubai operations of the airline would commence in April this year.

Also in the same decongestion move, Yakubu said Air Cote d’Ivoire would soon commence direct flight from Abuja to its base in Abidjan.

“Turkish Air and Emirates would soon commence direct flight to their bases from the new Port Harcourt International Airport terminal. We want to appeal to members of the public that they don’t have to come from Port Harcourt or any part of the Eastern state to fly out of the country.

“They can easily go to Port Harcourt to fly. Also, as you know, Abuja Airport new terminal too has opened and Emirates would be starting from the terminal from June. We are expecting all the international airlines to start operating also from Abuja Airport.

“We want to encourage our passengers that they don’t all have to come to Lagos even though we know Lagos is the commercial nerve centre of the country and the airport is the hub, but passengers can travel from Abuja and Port Harcourt airports to connect to their destinations so that we can decongest Lagos airport. Turkish will soon commence a direct flight from Port Harcourt to Turkey, while Emirates will also do so to Dubai,” Yakubu said.

It would be recalled that the newly commissioned Abuja Airport has annual capacity of 15 million passengers, while Port Harcourt has annual capacity of five million passengers.

She informed further that Kano Airport, which has 5 million annual passenger capacity, would come on stream in the next two months, adding that the new terminal at Lagos airport would also be commissioned “soon.”

Explaining why the new terminal at the Lagos airport hasn’t been commissioned yet, Yakubu explained that “Lagos airport did not take off early because of the issue of citing of the new terminal. Where we have it now, is not the original site, it has come up with a lot of issues – connectivity to the airside and the runway and others, but we are assuring our passengers that once Kano is commissioned, the next airport would be Lagos”. She added.