Anambra Government Faces Criticism Over Proposed New Airport

The decision of Anambra State government to construct another airport has come under severe criticisms, with many describing it as a misplaced priority.

The backlash comes nine months after the state government dismissed reports of a proposed airport in Ndikelionwu, Orumba North Local Government Area, barely 60 kilometres by road from the existing Chinua Achebe International Airport in Umueri.

On September 11, 2025, the state’s Commissioner for Information, Dr Law Mefor, said the rumours emerged after a visit to the Anambra Mixed-Use Industrial City, AMIC, with some people assuming that the industrial park would require its own airport.

Mefor clarified that no decision had been taken on whether to build a railway or an airport to serve AMIC, and any such decision would be communicated through the appropriate official channels.

However, in June 2026, government’s position changed when Mefor said the Anambra State government would expand its aviation infrastructure with the construction of a second airport as part of Governor Chukwuma Soludo’s long-term economic development strategy aimed at transforming the state into a major aviation and industrial hub.

Speaking in a video interview, he said the airport would become a key component of the Aerotropolis City project under the Soludo administration Solution 2.0 agenda and the state’s Vision 2070 development blueprint.

According to Mefor, the Aerotropolis City is being developed as an aviation-driven industrial and commercial hub, making the construction of another airport essential to support its projected growth.

He said: “There will be a second airport in Anambra. We are already working on it, and in the next one to two years, flights will begin operating from the new airport and aviation activities will commence.”

Just few days ago, he also told one of the national newspapers that “the new airport, as an aerotropolis, will service not just Anambra, but the entire South-East. Even though every other state has its own airport, this one is so centrally located that a part of Enugu, in fact, almost the entirety of Abia, a part of Imo, will find the second airport more proximate than the ones in their own states. The viability is just there, and the long-term need for it makes it even more viable.”

Though the state government says a second airport is needed to drive Anambra long-term economic and industrial ambitions, the potential facility has also raised questions about the performance and utilisation of Chinua Achebe International Airport, formerly Anambra State International Cargo Airport, which only began commercial operations less than five years ago.

On April 11, 2017, Anambra State government officially launched the construction of the airport. Ex-Governor Willie Obiano inaugurated the facility on October 30, 2021, and on December 2, 2021, the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, gave approval for the commencement of commercial operations, which began on December 7, 2021.

In its first month of operations, the airport handled 142 flights and 3,865 passengers.

Five years later, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the airport, Mr Martin Nwafor, disclosed that the facility had recorded a total 8,624 commercial and private flights, and over 600,000 passengers.

Even with those figures, Nwafor urged Anambra indigenes to patronise the airport instead of using facilities in neighbouring states.

Lamenting the situation in January, he said: “We are calling on Ndi Anambra, who we know as largely business-oriented, to make use of this airport provided and maintained for their benefit by the state government.

“I don’t see why the state would have a facility like this, while the majority of our citizens patronise airports in other States, thereby boosting other states’ revenue and improving their infrastructure. Let us use what we have.”

With this situation in mind, experts argue that any proposal to build a new airport should be viewed against the realities of Nigeria’s air transport market, where passenger traffic remains quite low despite the large population.

Nigeria has a population of about 220 million people, yet only about 17.94 million passenger movements by air in 2025, meaning fewer than 10 per cent of Nigerians used air transport during the year.

Also, across the country, there are over 20 airports, but only four, including Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Kano, are regarded by experts as commercially viable, accounting for the bulk of passenger traffic

In fact, the situation has been made worse by declining passenger numbers in recent years. For instance, in a recent interview, Trustee of the Airline Operators of Nigeria, AON, Roland Iyayi, disclosed that an analysis of data from FAAN, NCAA and the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, showed that Nigeria’s air transport sector has recorded an average annual decline of about 10 per cent in passenger traffic since 2021, mainly due to the persistent rise in airfares.