Economic recession responsible for drop in 2017 passenger traffic- Nigerian Aviation group

A group, the Aviation Round Table (ART) on Sunday said the economic recession in Nigeria was responsible for the 26 percent drop in the country’s air passenger traffic in 2017.

Gbenga Olowo, ART President, made this known while speaking with the News agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos, adding that such is expected since the country was in recession.

There was a total shut down in December, a period when people usually travel for holidays, but a lot of people stayed put, an effect of less or no activity in the economy leading to unavailability of money to spend for luxury, he said.

Gbenga, however, expressed optimism that the sector would perform better in 2018, witness an improvement because of politics and monies that are going to be spent on the following year’s elections.

Also, the government will want to speed up the fulfilment of their promises, which will gear up travelling.

The economy is coming out of recession, fiscal policies that government wants to drive will definitely stimulate commerce and travel, as well as politics that are around the corner, Olowo said.

No fewer than 11,221,608 air travellers went through Nigeria airports in 2017 according to figures released by the Consumer Protection Directorate of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).

This is however a 26 per cent decrease compared to the 15,232,597 passengers recorded between January and December 2016.