‘Lekki-Epe Airport to provide viable alternative to MMA’

The Guardian Nigeria
Olusegun Koiki
8 May 2026

For more than six decades, Lagos has consistently emerged as the commercial nerve centre of Nigeria, with its population, commerce and human resources.

However, despite its economic profile and status as West Africa’s busiest aviation hub, the state has long relied on just one airport, Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA), which is responsible for over 40 per cent of the total yearly air passenger traffic, according to the Annual Traffic Summary 2024 of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).

The Lagos State Government, like every other state, would have wanted to construct and own an airport to boost traffic movement and create an alternative for the travelling public. Still, the government was slowed by legal tussles between the Federal Government and Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited (BASL), the operator of Murtala Muhammed Airport Two (MMA2), over the construction of the terminal, which was launched on May 7, 2007.

But with last week’s resolution of the protracted dispute between the Federal Government and BASL over the MMA2 concession and two other agreements (four-star hotel and conference centre), the pathway has been cleared for the long-conceived Lekki-Epe International Airport project to take a proper shape.

Part of the agreement, according to the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, is the relinquishing of the exclusivity clause tied to the MMA2 concession, which stopped the construction of another airport in the state until the expiration of the ongoing 36-year concession agreement with the Federal Government...

‘Lekki-Epe Airport to provide viable alternative to MMA’ - The Guardian Nigeria - 08 May 2026