The new terminal at Lagos airport was commissioned on Tuesday 22 March by the Nigerian authorities. Once operational, the jewel in the crown, built through a bilateral agreement between China and the Federal State of Nigeria, will serve 14 million passengers per year.
Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos now has a new terminal. President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday inaugurated the state-of-the-art terminal at the Murtala Muhammad International Airport in Lagos. With an overall cost of over US$100 million, the port infrastructure is part of a package of five terminals planned for Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Kano and Enugu airports. The Port Harcourt and Abuja terminals are already operational since 2018. The one in Kano is completed and waiting to be commissioned.
The new terminal has the capacity to handle 14 million passengers per year. It is built on an area of approximately 56,000 square metres and has 66 check-in counters.
In addition, other facilities at the terminal include five baggage claim carousels, 16 arrival immigration desks, 28 departure immigration desks, eight security checkpoints, six passenger boarding bridges (two of which have already been installed), two food courts, four premium lounges, 22 guest rooms and spas, and 16 airline ticket offices, a visa-on-arrival service and port health centre, as well as a prayer area, over 3,000 square metres of duty-free space, about 5,000 square metres of rental utility space, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) said in a statement.
The facility is expected to generate about 3,000 direct and indirect employment opportunities for Nigerians, as well as improve the convenience and comfort of passengers, according to the same source.
Nigeria has more than a dozen national airlines. The country is experiencing an extraordinary level of traffic with the development of domestic air transport. Some platforms are used beyond their capacity, not to mention the discomfort and lack of quality that such situations entail.
