•Only three of 30 airports profitable —FAAN

•States can leverage aviation business to boost trade —Expert

There are worries on how some state governments in the country have been pumping billions of naira into the construction of airports, which some experts have described as unprofitable and white elephant projects.

Though many of the affected state governments have claimed that the decision to construct airports was aimed at boosting economic activities and enhance inter-state connectivity, huge concerns over the sustainability of these ventures remain the issue.

Aside the Gateway Airport, Ogun State, which opened for commercial activities recently, there are other state-owned airports including, Yobe Airport, which started in 2017, Bayelsa Airport, commissioned in 2019, Ebonyi Airport, commissioned in 2019, Anambra Airport, 2021, Ekiti, 2023 and Nasarawa Airport, which was initiated in 2017.

All of the airports are yet to make significant financial breakthroughs according to records available to the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).Most of the airports older than Gateway, which stated operations weeks ago, are said to be wallowing in abandonment and colossal loss due to inactivity.

Despite the visible waste, states like Abia, Lagos, Zamfara and Osun, have also been laying out plans to build airports.

Meanwhile the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), has bluntly stated that only three out of the 22 airports under its management are profitable and can contribute largely to the growth of the aviation sector.

FAAN Managing Director, Olubunmi Kuku, said that 19 of 22 airports under FAAN’s control were being subsidised as they do not get passenger traffic commensurate to their operational cost.

She further said that majority of the 22 airports being managed by FAAN require maintenance and upgrades in critical infrastructure like the terminal areas, the landside as well as the airside.

The revelation by the FAAN MD also tallied with independent findings by the Nigerian Tribune, which revealed that only four out of over 30 airports in the country are economically viable, as they contribute N5.57tn to foreign trade in 51 months.

Kuku had said: “We also have about six or seven airports that are either owned by state governments or private individuals or entities, which we also support with either aviation security or fire and rescue services.

“We have several states in the north as well as in the South-West that are coming up with new airports.

I would say that based on the statistics today, only three of the 22 airports managed by FAAN are actually profitable and contribute largely to the sustenance of the airport companies that we run.”

To Dr. Oluropo Owolabi, former Managing Director of Skypower Aviation Handling Company (SAHCOL), the airport projects are deliberate white elephant projects, noting that the projects are “anti-people.”

Owolabi said: “It’s a competition for political development rather than economic or social development.

What’s the use of an airport in Ekiti, a civil servant state. How many people can afford airfare there, except for those coming to patronise Afe Babalola University and a handful of parents in the tertiary institutions there.

“I think what the people of Ekiti need is a good road network that will make bringing out their farm products from the villages to the city easy and not a white elephant project that is not of any value to the citizenry.”Group Captain John Ojikutu, former Chief Security Officer, Murtala Mohammed International Airport, echoed similar sentiments.

“What is happening is more of political development competition than economic nor social development of the states,” he said.

“I strongly believe that the NCAA has a lot to do in regulating the number of airports within a state, region or zone depending on the population and passenger traffic of the area,” he added.

Ojikutu questioned the economic sense of increasing the number of airports in the country, adding that while the nation had 18 airports in the year 2,000, it had a passenger projection of 20 million in 2020.

He said: “The craze for airports building started way back in 2006/2007.

I wrote then that Osun and Oyo States should jointly take the concession of the Ibadan Airport.

They should jointly reconstruct the Osogbo-Ikire Road to an express road to hasten the transportation of passengers from Osogbo and therefore increase the passenger traffic of Ibadan airport.

“Ogun State airports should be located around Papalanto-Wasimi axis to serve Ogun West, Ogun Central and Ogun East.

The three sides should develop the existing roads connecting to this junction to fasten passengers’ movement to and from the airport.

“Same suggestion was given to Ekiti which capital is about 30 minutes to Akure Airport.

Specifically, I told a colleague who was the SA to Fayemi that the state would make more money daily on the road than what it would make on the airport.“What is happening is more of political development competition than economic or social development of the states.

In the year 2000, the passenger projection for the existing 18 airports was 20 million.

That figure was relevant till 2020. But we are in 2025 and the airports have increased to about 30 but the passenger number has not gone beyond 18 million and the passenger figures has dropped to 18 million, what then is the economic sense in the increase in the number of the airports.”

But Sam Caulcrick, former Rector, Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), pilot, and financial analyst, offered a different perspective.He said that the states could leverage on airports to drive economic leverage growth.

He said: “There is potential for state-owned airports in Nigeria to drive economic development and growth for their states. It requires a mindset shift of making aviation a nucleus for the states’ development.”

Caulcrick suggested that states could leverage aviation to drive economic diversification, job creation, and infrastructure development.

“States can develop integrated plans that link aviation with other sectors, such as tourism and logistics,” he said, adding that: “Public-private partnerships can help finance and operate airport infrastructure.”

The rush to build airports and start airlines by the states has continued to raised concerns about the sustainability of these ventures.

Experts, have, however, agreed that with many state governments struggling to maintain operations the concern would remain if they can succeed where others have failed.