In Lagos, one of Africa’s most frenetic megacities, the first handshake with the wider world often happens on the tarmac of Murtala Muhammed International Airport. As Nigeria’s principal aviation gateway, MMIA has long carried the weight of the nation’s global connections. But as passenger numbers swell and flight schedules grow denser, a persistent question hangs in the air: can an airport built for a different era still sustain the speed, volume, and expectations of modern air travel, or has growth finally outpaced the infrastructure meant to support it?
Murtala Muhammed International Airport’s story is one of overwhelming success, with its infrastructure outgrowing it. Originally built in the World War II era and significantly expanded in the late 1970s, Terminal 1 was conservatively designed to handle under 200,000 passengers per year. Instead, before the recent overhaul began, parts of the airport were shouldering multiple millions annually, a scale far beyond the original intent.
The mismatch played out daily on the ground, with congested delays, packed check-in and security queues, apron constraints that left arriving aircraft holding for space, and essential systems from air conditioning to baggage handling and electrical wiring stretched to the limit.
These inefficiencies weren’t just passenger frustrations; they had ripple effects on airline operations, turnaround times and the overall cost of doing business. Up until its partial modernisation, poorly serviced wings and inadequate boarding gates hindered seamless passenger handling.
Notwithstanding the growing constraints on the airport’s Terminal 1, demand continued to grow. Recent figures show international passenger traffic alone reached about 4.3 million in 2024, up more than 6% year-on-year, even as domestic numbers dipped slightly due to airline challenges and economic pressures.
Faced with mounting pressure, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), under the leadership of Olubunmi Kuku and backed by the Federal Government of Nigeria, has launched what is arguably Nigeria’s most ambitious aviation infrastructure overhaul in decades: a full-scale rehabilitation and expansion of Murtala Muhammed International Airport’s core facilities.
The overhaul itself is wide-ranging in scope, targeting both the passenger experience and the airport’s operational backbone. Inside the terminals, layouts are being reconfigured and interiors modernised to improve passenger flow, ease chronic bottlenecks and more clearly separate arriving travellers from those departing, an essential fix for an airport long strained by overlapping movements.
Airside capacity is also being significantly expanded. Plans include apron enlargement and the installation of additional boarding fingers capable of accommodating more wide-body aircraft, a move intended to reduce ground delays and increase the airport’s ability to handle long-haul traffic.
On the landside, new access roads and improved internal connections are being developed to link terminals more seamlessly and ease congestion spilling onto surrounding road networks. For connecting passengers, dedicated transit zones are being introduced, allowing travellers to transfer between flights without repeatedly clearing immigration, bringing MMIA closer to the standards of major international hubs.
To keep the airport running while construction continues, temporary solutions have been rolled out. These include a provisional departure hall with three gates and a peak handling capacity of roughly 1,500 passengers, designed to absorb pressure and maintain continuity during the most disruptive phases of the rebuild
The completion is slated to take about 22 months, during which travelling through MMIA may be inconvenient, but the result promises a dramatically improved passenger experience.
Upon completion, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) estimates the combined capacity of Terminals 1 and 2 will grow to about 7,040 passengers per hour, translating to roughly 17.6 million passengers per year. That represents a three- to fourfold increase in annual throughput compared to pre-rehabilitation levels.
Physical expansion, however, tells only part of the modernisation story. The reforms underway reach deeper into how the airport functions day to day. According to the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), early gains are already visible: the introduction of electronic boarding gates and upgraded screening equipment has begun to slash passenger processing times in sections of the old terminal—from nearly two hours at peak periods to closer to one, signalling tangible efficiency gains.
Accessibility has also been pushed higher on the agenda. New facilities are being designed to better accommodate passengers with reduced mobility, families travelling with children, and the expectations of international travellers accustomed to modern hub airports, marking a shift toward a more inclusive, passenger-centred airport experience.
As with any project of this scale, the path forward is not without friction. Funding timelines must be carefully managed, construction schedules remain vulnerable to delays, and the sheer complexity of keeping a major international hub operational while rebuilding it in real time continues to test planners and contractors alike. Beyond the terminals themselves, equally critical supporting systems demand sustained focus, stable power supply, dependable ground-handling operations and improved surface transport links to and from the airports, underscoring that true transformation will depend on more than bricks, steel and glass.
Murtala Muhammed International Airport can rise to the task of rehabilitation and modernisation only if modernisation is matched by efficient execution, integrated transport planning and continued investment in operational systems.
The airport’s reconstruction represents a major leap forward from congestion to a capacity-ready hub. If completed on schedule, with the new terminal infrastructure delivering on its promises, MMIA could indeed pivot toward the demands of modern air travel capable of handling nearly 20 million travellers annually, and doing so with a passenger experience closer to global standards.
For a facility that once groaned under overcrowding and outdated design, this reinvention is historic and potentially transformational for Nigeria’s aviation.
IDRIS ALOOMA
Idris Alooma, a public affairs analyst and media consultant contributed this from Lagos
