The lack of designated transit areas at Nigerian international airports—where passengers can wait before connecting to other flights—is hindering passenger growth across the nation’s airports.
Experts say the situation has stunted Nigeria’s air passenger traffic which has hovered between 13 million to 16 million passengers in four years.
Experts add that lack of transit areas portrays an airport as ‘unfriendly’ for passengers transiting to other countries and flights.
Transiting passengers struggle to enjoy an efficient and convenient travel experience at Nigerian airports as they have to go through fresh immigration checks due to the absence of transit points.
A major setback is that there could be potential for delays or missed connections, especially when dealing with multiple airlines or terminals.
Allen Onyema, chairman and CEO of Air Peace, in a recent interview, said there is no area at Nigeria’s international airports where passengers can transit seamlessly. He noted that passengers are often subjected to stringent immigration and check-in processes just to get onto the next flight.
Onyema said this major setback explains why Air Peace lost its Duala passengers and had to suspend flight operations into the destination.
“We cannot bring somebody from Douala going to Dakar to transit from Nigeria. The person will, first of all, clear with the immigration and pay $200 despite not having Nigeria as his final destination. He will pass through all manners of uniform personnel because he is transiting from Nigeria,” Onyema said.
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The Air Peace CEO called on the federal government to make airports transit- friendly, stressing that other African countries have made their airports transit hubs just to lure more passengers to travel through them.
“Look at small Togo, Asky is doing very well there just because they have transit hubs. What they do is to bring people from different places and move them out. Passengers buy from the duty-free and this has become a means of revenue generation,” he said.
Olumide Ohunayo, industry analyst and director of research, Zenith Travels, told BusinessDay that without transit points at international airports, the ability to build an aviation hub for Africa will be a pipe dream.
“I think it’s a big disadvantage not only to the government and people of Nigeria but also to the aviation sector in general and flag carriers in particular,” Ohunayo said.
The industry analyst stressed that the strength of Qatar Airways, Emirates, Rwandair, Air Maroc, Egypt Air and others operating in Nigeria is the transit points at their hub cities, noting that over 90 percent of international passengers in Nigeria are Nigerians as their flights terminate in the country.
John Ojikutu, industry expert and CEO of Centurion Aviation Security and Safety Consult, said: “If we are serious about increasing international operations to Europe and America, we can benefit from the south, east and central Africa airlines and the transiting passengers. These would increase passenger traffic that has been stagnant for well over 10 years. It is the transiting passengers that raise the yearly figures for the airports and not the population of the country.”
Ojikutu said Johannesburg has traffic figures that are more than half of the population of South Africa and there is no reason why Lagos and Abuja alone cannot process over 20 million passengers each annually.
According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), transit hubs in Africa, particularly those facilitated by air transport, offer significant economic benefits by boosting trade, tourism, and job creation.
The transport association listed three major benefits of transit lounges to include lower fares, increased frequencies and lower connectivity.
Seyi Adewale, chief executive officer of Mainstream Cargo Limited, argued that the potential passenger travel size needing transit points is not large enough and the country’s geopolitical position limits its capacity to be a natural transit point.
He however noted that lack of transit points limits the country’s capacity to improve airport services, employ or engage more aviation workers, agents or service providers, and further improve security apparatuses.
Samuel Caulcrick, former rector of the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria, said: “Improving passenger satisfaction could be achieved by designing lounges which can significantly enhance the overall travel experience, leading to increased passenger satisfaction and loyalty.”
