The National Bureau of Statistics has released its 2015 Passenger Traffic Statistics for the second quarter of 2015 showing declines in passenger travel in Nigeria. According to the report, the number of Internationally travelling passengers declined by 406,369 passengers or 27.93% from quarter one to 1,048,598 passengers in quarter two.
However, Domestic travel showed a marginal rise quarter on quarter, with 16,752 or 0.71% more passengers travelling in Q2. The resultant 2,374,479 domestically bound passengers represented 69.37% of the total number of passengers, up by 7.53% points from the preceding quarter, yet down 1.35% points from Q2 of 2014.
Year on year, both domestic and international passenger numbers were lower, with 73,492 or 6.55% fewer international passengers and 335,908 or 12.39% fewer domestic passengers relative to the corresponding quarter of the preceding year.
At 728,064 passengers, 69.43% of all internationally bound passengers traveled through Lagos’ Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Q2 of 2015. From the preceding quarter, this was a marginal rise of 29,335 passengers or 4.20%, whilst year on year it represented a decline of 106,003 passengers or 12.71%.
However, Abuja airport was the main driver of the quarterly declines in traffic observed; following its spike of 683,458 passengers recorded in the opening quarter of 2015, the 253,040 that traveled in Q2 represented a decline of 62.98%, reducing its share of international flights from 46.97% in Q1 to 24.13% in Q2. Yet year on year, this was still a significant overall rise, up by 46,128 passengers or 22.29%, representing the only positive annual growth in passenger numbers apart from Sokoto, which had 8 additional passengers from the corresponding quarter of 2014.
Kano continued to host the third greatest volume of international passengers, at 40,582 passengers or 3.87% of the total. Nonetheless, this was a decline both quarterly, of 1,739 passengers or 4.11%, and year on year, of 4,986 passengers or 10.94%.
