The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has disclosed that air tickets in the country was N505.2billion in 2017.
According to the regulatory agency, the sales included that of domestic and international airlines.
The breakdown of the sales indicated that domestic airlines sold N93.6bn tickets while foreign carriers had N411.5bn within the period.
The figures represented a slight increase in the value of ticket sold in the previous year 2016 estimated at N79.4bn and N342.9bn on the domestic and international routes respectively.
Capt. Muhtar Usman, Director-General, NCAA, reeled out the figures in his presentation at the Aviation Roundtable (ART) second quarter Business Breakfast Meeting held in Lagos.
Passenger movement on the domestic and foreign routes in 2016 was 10,657,950 and 4,257,327 respectively while local and foreign aircraft movement was 176,947 and 43,386.
But, in January to December, 2017, the domestic passengers dropped to 10,135,009 while foreign passengers also fell to 4,006,644.
Aircraft movement on its part showed an increase to 183,216 on the domestic route while the foreign movement dropped to 39,197.
The DG who was represented by the Director of Consumer Protection Directorate of the authority, Mallam Adamu Abdullahi attributed the 2017 drop to the closure of Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja when flights were diverted to Kaduna.
The DG disclosed that the industry has stabilised with zero accident rate in the last three years, while 25, 528 passengers pass through 21 airports daily with 305 daily aircraft movement.
He added that the regulatory authority has continued to impose stringent measures aimed at strengthening safety, pointing out that between 2014 and 2017, 90 sanctions were applied. Out of these, 15 pilots and five cabin crew members were sanctioned; among others.
On the discrepancy in figures, the NCAA boss said the figures emanating from it have been harmonized with those of other agencies at the airport.
