At least 17 out of the 20 airports owned and managed by the Federal Government have turned out to be unviable and have operated at a loss for three years.
Except the trio of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos; Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja; and Port Harcourt International Airport (PHIA), Rivers State, none of the other airports has sufficient revenue to cover the cost of operations alone.
Investigations by The Guardian showed that additional funding from high-traffic Lagos and Abuja airports’ excess revenue to the tune of N26.1 billion cushioned the operational cost deficits incurred by the unviable airports in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
With zero revenue being recorded following the lockdown occasioned by the coronavirus pandemic and recent flight restrictions for another four weeks, the Federal Government is in a dilemma on what to do with the airports; either to keep running them at a loss regardless of liability or temporarily closing them till the economy and passenger traffic start looking up.
Apparently due to the political uproar that forbids shutdown, some stakeholders have urged the government to expedite the concession programme for the airports, and attendant restructuring of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) for sustainability.
FAAN owns and manages all the public airports in the country on behalf of the Federal Government. Among them are 20 that are directly owned by the Federal Government and four state-owned airports.
A fact-sheet of revenue and expenditure of the 20 federal airports and FAAN headquarters in the last three years, obtained by The Guardian, showed huge revenue shortfall and deficits across the board.
Except the trio of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos; Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja; and Port Harcourt International Airport (PHIA), Rivers State, none of the other airports has sufficient revenue to cover the cost of operations alone.
Investigations by The Guardian showed that additional funding from high-traffic Lagos and Abuja airports’ excess revenue to the tune of N26.1 billion cushioned the operational cost deficits incurred by the unviable airports in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
With zero revenue being recorded following the lockdown occasioned by the coronavirus pandemic and recent flight restrictions for another four weeks, the Federal Government is in a dilemma on what to do with the airports; either to keep running them at a loss regardless of liability or temporarily closing them till the economy and passenger traffic start looking up.
Apparently due to the political uproar that forbids shutdown, some stakeholders have urged the government to expedite the concession programme for the airports, and attendant restructuring of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) for sustainability.
FAAN owns and manages all the public airports in the country on behalf of the Federal Government. Among them are 20 that are directly owned by the Federal Government and four state-owned airports.
A fact-sheet of revenue and expenditure of the 20 federal airports and FAAN headquarters in the last three years, obtained by The Guardian, showed huge revenue shortfall and deficits across the board.