Experts List Conditions to Make Nigeria Air Travel Hub in W’Africa

Chinedu Eze

Aviation experts have identified the conditions that must be met for Nigeria to function as air travel hub for West Africa.

Such conditions include, strong home-based airlines, modern airport infrastructure with efficient services, clement government policies and downward review of taxes on passengers and cargo.

The experts who spoke in Lagos at the 2026 first quarter Business Breakfast Meeting, organised by the Aviation Safety Roundtable Initiative (ASRTI), agreed that the private sector must be involved in aviation growth and development because government cannot bring the desired change that will transform the sector.

In her presentation at the meeting, the Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Mrs. Olubunmi Kuku, said for Nigeria to take advantage of its location, which easily connects to most parts of the world, it must urgently accelerate investments and reforms to transform Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) into a safe and economically viable aviation hub.

To make this realisable, Kuku emphasised the critical role of private sector participation, noting that government alone cannot finance the scale of upgrades required across the nation’s airports. 

Speaking in the same vein, the Managing Director and CEO of Aero Contractors, Captain Ado Sanusi, said that in addition to having functional and good airports, a country must have strong airlines to make a successful hub.

“To make a successful hub is not only to build very good airports, but you also need to have strong home-based airlines. For example, in Africa, we can look at Ethiopia, in Europe, you can look at Lufthansa in Frankfurt.  So most successful hubs, have strong home-based airlines. I stand for flag carriers. I don’t think government has any business to run an airline,” Sanusi said.

In his speech, the Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer of Ibom Air, George Uriesi, said that a hub is not a about big airport; but an airport is a hub when more than 30 per cent of it arriving passengers are transiting out of the airport.