By Dickson Omobola
The first half of 2026 was a mixed bag for the country’s air transport sector, with airlines grappling with rising operating costs while government agencies, especially the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, and Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, came under fresh scrutiny.
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While airlines struggled with the sharp increase in the cost of aviation fuel, better known as Jet-A1, and numerous bird strikes, FAAN failed to seamlessly implement its cashless payment policy, which commenced at the Lagos and Abuja airports.
In February, fire also gutted the old terminal of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, Lagos, destroying several items, including critical air-to-ground communication equipment. The inferno brought FAAN under scrutiny, with insurance experts claiming that the MMIA and many other FAAN-managed airports across the country lacked insurance cover.
