Lagos airport tightens security as it records higher passenger traffic

The Murtala Muhammed International Airport Lagos handled 187.49 million kg of cargo and 7.319 million passengers last year, figures obtained by the national newspaper PUNCH from the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria have shown.

The Manager, South-West Airports, FAAN, Mrs Victoria Shina-Aba, who reportedly gave the figures, said the MMIA witnessed increased growth in passenger, cargo and aircraft movement in 2019.

Cargo performance by the airport in 2019 was 18.95 per cent higher than the 157.62 million recorded in 2018, PUNCH reported.

Compared with passenger movement of 6.862 million in 2018, the airport recorded a growth of 6.7 per cent in 2019.

Shina-Aba was quoted as saying that the airport had continued to record tremendous improvement with the ongoing construction work.

She said the security issues witnessed last year were also being addressed by the Federal Government, assuring that the issues would remain paramount and all shortcomings studied with a view to addressing them.

Shina-Aba said in the interim, measures had been put in place to address some of the challenges.

She stated that the measures included increase in patrol on airside with military men drafted to areas where intruders were using to gain entry into the airport, adding that the height of the perimeter fence had been raised with more blocks and spikes on them.

“The airport fence has become low due to the ongoing road construction along the Agege Motor Road. So, what we have done is to put additional blocks and spikes on them to increase the height,” Shina-Aba said.

Speaking on the new terminal building under construction, she said it would help to provide seamless passenger facilitation when completed, explaining that the old terminal would be refurbished to complement the new one.

Kola Tella