Complete History Of Murtala Muhammed International Airport

Murtala Muhammed International airport acronym to be MMIA, has grown to be one of the busiest place, as regards its passenger’s traffic movement over the years, amidst other well-known locations in Lagos state. The International airport which is located in Ikeja Lagos state Nigeria, is the major airport serving the entire state. It is also a premier international air gateway for Nigeria. Following its establishment during the World War II, It was originally known as Lagos International airport, after which it was renamed in the mid-1970s, during the construction of the new international terminal, after Murtala Muhammed, the 4th military ruler of Nigeria who died in 1976. 

The international terminal was officially opened March, 15, 1979. Murtala Muhammed International Airport has both its international and local terminal, sharing the same runway. The estimated distance between the two terminals is approximately one kilometer. The domestic terminal used to be the old Ikeja Airport, just as it was formerly called, it controls all domestic operations. Following the completion of the international terminal, international operations had to be shifted from the domestic terminal, in other to manage its passenger’s traffic movement over the months.

In April 7 2007, a new domestic terminal known as MMA2, was constructed and commissioned, to also manage the airport domestic operations and affairs. Over the years, all viable affairs of the airport has been manage by The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria. Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) is a parastatal of government, under the supervision of Federal Ministry of Aviation. Akinro (2013, p.3) said, the creation of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria started with the promulgation of Decree 45 of 1976, which established the Nigerian Airports Authority (NAA) by the Federal Military Government under the regime of Olusegun Obasanjo in 1976. It commenced activities with the inauguration of first Board of Directors in Lagos on July 11, 1978. The Nigerian Airports Authority (NAA) as noted by Akinro (2013, p.4) continued to perform its functions as outlined by the Decree establishing it until August 1995 when a Civil Aviation Reform was carried out by the then Federal Military Government.

After the opening of the international terminal in March, 15, 1979, airport passenger traffic has been in steady growth, over the years. However prediction of how the airport passenger traffic is somewhat less researched, although aircraft demand forecast has been recently studied. (kyhla 2016). An accurate and reliable airport traffic demand forecasting is an integral component for short term and long term planning and decision making regarding airport infrastructure and development and flight network, this then does not exempt Murtala Muhammed International Airport. The steady growth in its passenger’s traffic movement over the years is obviously, something to look into, in order to help its controlling body Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), to help make decisions as regards its infrastructural amenities and also help to improvement its flight networks. Physicist Neil Bohr once said “prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future,” It has been as “one of the 10 grand challenge of modern science” (cheng et. al. 2015), However if forecasting is properly done it can make an obvious impact. A 10% improvement in forecasting accuracy can impact revenue gain by 4% (Yu 2012). For many large firm, even a 1% increase means an increase in million dollars of revenue, further stressing the importance of an accurate forecast.