Airlines, airports and passports, by Chris Adetayo

The Aviation sector continues to dominate conversations. Infact, August 2025 should be rechristened “Aviation Month”. It’s been a roller coaster of incidents, policies and responses.

I’m happy about Air Peace starting a direct flight from Nigeria to Brazil. The opportunities will be many. To be sure, this will not be the first direct air services between the 2 countries. Varig, Brazil’s leading carrier of a bygone era, had a regular direct flight to Lagos back in the 1980s. The Airline later went burst and so did the route.

Since then, going to Brazil is an Israelites journey through the wilderness. A senior colleague was there last month, enduring the pain of flying to Qatar to catch a 14 hour flight to Sao Paolo. Inclusive of layover, more than 24 hours of journey time. A direct flight will take no more than 8 hours. Hopefully there’s enough traffic to make it worthwhile for Air Peace – even if it’s just weekly flight.

So much has been made of the proposed cost of rebuilding the Lagos Airport main terminal. N712 Billion. About $500 Million. I agree with the view that, by Nigerian standards, that’s a lot of money. But given the stated scope of the project, and compared to similar efforts elsewhere, it doesn’t seem like a crazy amount. However, what will be good is for the Government to release the architectural plan of the rebuild. Let’s see what it will look like, what the customer journey through the airport will be when completed etc. Airports are now commercial and tourist centers and not just a place to land and take off. The real test will be what the money will deliver.

The Nigerian Passport is now going to cost at least N100,000. This comes barely a year after it was increased to N50,000. Perhaps the cost of production has gone way up. This, in itself, speaks to the high inflation that continues to burden Nigerians. However, a 100% increase within a year is astronomical and hard to justify. A more measured approach to raising costs must be a priority of government. When costs of government services are raised by 100% or more within short periods, it is legitimate to question whether there is a proper measurement of the impact on the citizens.

Ok. Thank you, Aviation August. We move to something else in September. Hopefully something more positive.