Why Nigeria Lags Behind in Aviation Development

Poor infrastructure, excessive taxes and lack of strong airlines have been identified as reasons why Nigeria is relatively behind in aviation growth and development. But with greater commitment, Nigeria can develop its air transport sector and become competitive in Africa, writes Chinedu Eze

In the early 20^th century, many countries in Africa established national airlines, some of which went under while others still exist till today.

Some of those that exist today metamorphosed from colonial ancestry and grew into bigger airlines.

For example, Air Maroc predecessor was established in 1953, while Air Maroc was established in 1957; Tunisia national carrier was established in October 1948; Algeria, 1953; Ethiopia Airlines, December 1945; Kenya Airways was a young kid that was established in June 1977; South Africa Airways, 1934; Egypt Air, June 1932; and Nigeria Airways Limited was established in 1958.

Nigeria Airways was the contemporary of many of these airlines but it went under in 2003 and was liquidated in 2004, wracked by corruption and bad management.

Many industry stakeholders believed that only few countries in Africa matched Nigeria in aviation development at the zenith of Nigeria Airways. The Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT) was busy training pilots, engineers and others for the defunct national carrier.

But when it went under, the industry started retarding. Although the airline subsector was deregulated in 1988, Nigeria Airways was still the pivot of the airline industry while the airlines floated by the private sector stayed at the fringes until after the liquidation of national carrier.

After that, a drought in manpower development set in. Because of the high cost of training aviators, it was only a national carrier that could embark on training exercise without looking at its coffers and with the demise of the airline, there was retrogression in every aspect of the airline business.

Some experts also posited that government at that time welcomed emerging airlines powered by the private sector with skepticism and propagated some laws that seemed inimical to the growth of the airlines. They were also of the view that as a government organisation, Nigeria Airways enjoyed a lot of packs. It negotiated commercial agreements with foreign carriers, it was lackadaisical with taxes and airports were really built for the then national carrier.

According to industry analysts, if Nigeria Airways were robustly managed, bereft of corruption, it would have continued to operate today, but when it went under, and government did not liberalize its policies, but supported the private sector as it supported Nigeria Airways. Rather, aviation agencies seemed to be antagonistic to the emerging airlines and this may explain why the new carriers had very short life span of about 10 years.

Airport Infrastructure

At the peak of its operation, Nigeria Airways did not encourage the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) to build transit facility at the busiest airport in Nigeria, the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos. This may be because it operated point to point and Nigerians constituted over 98 of its passengers. But Nigeria Airways operated in the West Coast, New York, London and other destinations.

Now, there are emerging airlines in Nigeria which want to fully exploit all the markets in the West Coast and Central Africa and take passengers to international destinations, but they are being deterred by poor infrastructure. So, they cannot compete effectively with international airlines. It is difficult for them to bring in passengers from neighboring countries and take them to other destinations. This is because there are no transit facilities where the passengers can stay and transit from one flight to another without passing through immigration and screening. This makes the whole process cumbersome and unpleasant to the passengers. The absence of these facilities has made Nigerian carriers uncompetitive.

Hub Operations

Last week, aviators brainstormed on how to boost airline operations in Nigeria by making the country a hub. The experts spoke in Lagos at the 2026 first quarter Business Breakfast Meeting, organised by the Aviation Safety Roundtable Initiative (ASRTI).

Themed: ‘Boosting Aviation Sector Contribution to GDP: The Importance of an Aviation Hub’, the breakfast meeting dwelt on how a hub status could boost Nigeria’s aviation sector and the possible input of aviation and allied businesses in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth.

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.  

Kuku assured that Nigeria’s ambition to become a major African aviation hub was achievable, provided there is sustained investment, policy consistency and coordinated execution across government and industry stakeholders.

Lagos as Aviation Hub

According to Kuku Lagos airport can be positioned as West Africa’s premier aviation hub and to make it happen, there are conditions that must be met.

“These include high-frequency transit flights linking Europe, Asia, the Americas, and intra – African routes; world-class cargo facilities for perishables, oil and gas equipment, pharmaceuticals, and e-commerce. The conditions also include the attraction of more international carriers, maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) centres, pilot training academies, and airport-based commercial ecosystems economic multipliers of an aviation hub.

Kuku also identified the multiplier impact of a hub. She said there would be direct increase in passenger and cargo traffic, which would in turn generate generating higher airport fees and taxes.

Indirectly, a hub will boost tourism spending and easier business travel across Africa and such progress made will create opportunities for new jobs in logistics, engineering, security, and services, along with stronger local supply chains and all these will catalyse to faster growth in non-oil exports, reduced reliance on oil, and increased foreign direct investment.

The FAAN managing director said the implementation of the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) would reduce regulatory bottlenecks and encourage smart public-private partnerships, leading to more aviation’s GDP contribution, which could realistically double or more than double in the next decade.

Strong Airlines

Speaking in the same vein, the Managing Director and CEO of Aero Contractors, Captain Ado Sanusi, said 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, and in Europe, you can look at Lufthansa.  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. I believe government can create the enabling environment for airlines to thrive. And I believe that if we have strong airlines they can be given the opportunity to be flag carriers. And that will give us a very good hub,” Sanusi said.

Sanusi also said that for airlines to thrive, government must not burden them with multiple taxes, since taxes could undermine the growth of airlines.

“There are a lot of taxes in the system and when you create a lot of taxes for airlines, they don’t grow because multiple taxes will stifle growth. And, of course, getting FX (foreign exchange) is one of the things that we need to address very quickly to ensure that we have a very good hub,” he said.

On navigation in the airspace, Sanusi who is the former Managing Director of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), remarked that Nigeria should migrate from land to satellite based navigation, advising that Performance Based Navigation (PBN) should be fully embraced.

“We must transit from this land base that we have to have this extremely important system. It actually reduces cost. Airline will become greener if there is PBN system and efficient air traffic control system. We also need maintenance and training facilities in the aviation eco-system. Unfortunately, Nigeria is the only country that will buy training device for years and leave it to gather dust. We need a modern training facility in the country. And also, to have a maintenance facility that would cater for maintenance,” he added.

Transit Passengers

In his speech, the Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer of Ibom Air, George Uriesi, said that a hub was not a about big airport; noting that an airport is a hub when more than 30 per cent of its arriving passengers are transiting out of the airport. That is the passengers on arrival at the hub airport will join other flights to farther destinations.

“So, you can be a 100 million passenger airport and not be a hub. You will just be doing point to point, origin and destination traffic. A hub is when 30 per cent to 90 per cent of your traffic is transiting. They are coming into your airport to go somewhere and they are coming back from somewhere to go home via your airport. One thing is the infrastructure and another thing is the airline to provide the connectivity. And the third thing is that the service must match the infrastructure,” he said.

Uriesi said that one of the most important things needed for a successful hub operation is to have home based carriers that are able to connect passengers to other destinations.

“One of the most important elements is the critical element, which has a home-based carrier that is able to connect passengers. And a big limitation in Nigeria is that we are suffering from the small airline syndrome. The airlines are too small at the moment. Some have a plan to grow, and grow quite faster like Arik Air, but they are quite small and are sitting small. And sitting small is very dangerous. You are just one slip away from leaving the business if you are small. 

“A hub is flight coming in, and they are coming in because they have connecting flights. If you are going to fly from Dakar to Mauritius, one of the choices you are going to make is where you are going to transit, because there is going to be added flight. If you have the choice of going via Accra or going via Lagos, I can tell you that by default setting, the choices of most people is to go via Accra, because they will be thinking about the experience of the airport when they turnaround. So, one thing is the infrastructure, another thing is the airline to provide the connectivity. And the third thing is that the service must match the infrastructure,” he said.

In its communique released after the meeting, ASRTI advised that Nigeria should work to have three strong flag carriers, and that there should be concerted efforts towards developing the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos into a viable hub.