Air Transportation report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed that local airlines raked in about N390 billion through ticket sales as 13 million passengers travelled through airports in 2021.
In 2021, air tickets sold at an average of N30,000 for economy tickets while business tickets sold for an average of N60,000.
According to the NBS, the figure represents an increase of 43.41 per cent compared to the nine million recorded in 2020.
The report also says that there were 6.5m arrivals in 2021, higher than 4.9m recorded in 2020. Similarly, departure stood at 6.5m in 2021 compared to 4.2m in 2020.
That 2.2m international passengers passed through Nigerian airports in 2021, as against 1.4m passengers in 2020, which represents a 57.61% growth rate.
The Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport Abuja recorded a total of 4.76m domestic travellers, accounting for 37% of the passengers in 2021.
It was followed by the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos State had 4.09m domestic passengers, accounting for 31% of the total figures.
For the foreign travel, there was 1.1m arrivals in 2021 while passengers’ departure was at 1.1m, making it 2.2m foreign movements in 2021.
Similarly, the foreign movements statistics showed that arrivals in Q1 2021 were 212,977 and departures were 222,453. In the second quarter of 2021, there were 220,171 arrivals and 232,501 departures.
In Q3 2021, there were 285,189 departures and 318,841 arrivals. In Q4, there were 391 284 arrivals and 335 730 departures.
As insecurity persists in the country, especially on the roads, stakeholders have predicted a surge in passenger traffic.
