MMA2, Abuja airport, rank among top 10 in Africa

Airports Council International, (ACI) have released passenger traffic figures for all airports in Africa, showing that Nigeria’s Murtala Muhammed Airport Two (MMA2) and Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, (NAIA) ranked third and fourth respectively.

While (MMA2) recorded 5.7 million passengers, NAIA recorded a passenger traffic of 5.4 million passengers.

Cairo International Airport in Egypt led the pack in the year under review recording more than 11.3 million passengers.

South Africa’s OR Tambo Intl. Airport and Nigeria’s Murtala Muhammed Airport Two (MMA2) followed recording 8.2 & 5.7 million passengers respectively.

According to ACI, the airport council representing the collective interests of airports around the world to promote excellence in the aviation industry, the numbers across African airports show an impressive improvement in airport operational performance in all three (Passenger, Aircraft & Cargo) traffic counters witnessed across the continent.

Egypt’s Hurghada International Airport came fifth with 4,909,379 passenger; South Africa’s Cape Town International Airport followed with 4,757,855 passengers; Addis Ababa Bole International Airport, Ethiopia recorded 4,585,712 passengers; Sharm El Sheikh International Airport, Egypt recorded 4,557,288 passengers; Aeroport Muhammed V Morocco processed 4,150,015 and Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Kenya had 3,974,158 passengers.

In 2021, 114.8 million passengers were processed through African airports, which accounted for 2.5 percent of the World passenger traffic. This is an increase of about 49.4 percent over 2020, and the air freight movement reached 2.2 million tons of goods, an increase of 11.6 percent over 2020.

The number of passengers carried around the world reached 4.6 billion in 2021, an increase of 28.4 percent over 2020, and the global air cargo movement reached 125.3 million tons of goods, an increase of 15.4 percent over 2020.

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha is the Aviation Correspondent at BusinessDay Media Limited, publishers of BusinessDay Newspapers. She is also the Deputy Editor, BusinessDay Weekender Magazine, the Saturday Weekend edition of BusinessDay. She holds a BSC in Mass Communication from the prestigious University of Nigeria, Nsukka and a Masters degree in Marketing at the University of Lagos. As the lead writer on the aviation desk, Ifeoma is responsible and in charge of the three weekly aviation and travel pages in BusinessDay and BDSunday. She also overseas and edits all pages of BusinessDay Saturday Weekender. She has written various investigative, features and news stories in aviation and business related issues and has been severally nominated for award in the category of Aviation Writer of the Year by the Nigeria Media Nite-Out awards; one of the Nigeria’s most prestigious media awards ceremonies. Ifeoma is a one-time winner of the prestigious Nigeria Media Merit Award under the 'Aviation Writer of the Year' Category. She is the 2025 Eloy Award winner under the Print Media Journalist category. She has undergone several journalism trainings by various prestigious organisations. Ifeoma is also a fellow of the Female Reporters Leadership Fellowship of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism.