Chinedu Eze

In June 2023, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, renamed the Maiduguri airport to Muhammadu Buhari International Airport and designated it as international facility.

The re-naming of the airport, according to industry stakeholders, will allow the airport to provide services to both foreign and local airlines for scheduled international flights.

Maiduguri Airport was established in 1950, 10 years before Nigeria’s independence and in those days, it provided connectivity to many Nigerians who arrived from the four neigbouring countries of Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Central Africa Republic into other parts of Nigeria, as a domestic airport.

Due to its strategic nature, it has been providing international service for Hajj operation even before its designation as international airport.

Last week, the Borno State government, in collaboration with the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), continued to upgrade the infrastructure at the airport.

THISDAY spoke with the acting Airport Manager, Ibrahim Bello, about the infrastructure renewal of the airport. According to him, the upgrade of facilities is aimed at modernising the airport, adding that the governor of the state, Babagana Umara Zulum, who has shown uncommon commitment to the airport, decided to work with FAAN to rev the activities at the facility.

“The infrastructural upgrade, the terminal extension came up when the Governor expressed the passion to collaborate with FAAN and the Ministry of Aviation.So, he went to see the Minister. He spoke with the Minister and the Minister gave his word. The Minister came here with all the heads of agencies, FAAN, Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) and the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and other aviation stakeholders.

“We took a facility tour of what is on ground here with the Minister and the state government officials. Later we went to the government house, we sat down, and so many things in terms of facilities, were brought out, what is on ground, what is not on ground, what needs to be upgraded, what needs to be provided. And the Minister asked all the agencies, the heads of agencies, to come up with their plan for the upgrade,” he disclosed.

Bello said FAAN brought out its working plan and itemised the facilities that must be in place to modernise the airport and this include not just the facilities but also manpower.

“So, immediately, FAAN submitted the drawing, how it wants the terminal to look like, and the drawing was adopted. In response, the state government started work. The work took some time; thank God, we are seeing to its over 90 per cent completion. So, FAAN has brought all the necessary equipment, as you can see. We have all the needed equipment and facilities, including check-in counters which are digital. They have the weighing scale attached to them, so you don’t need to have the weighing scale separate and the counter separate. So, this one has modern checking counters provided by FAAN management.

“And the FAAN Management also provided seats for passengers. They also provided the screening machines, as well as belts, the conveyor belts and the carousel. All of them are on ground right now. And some of them have been fixed. Some are still being fixed,” Bello disclosed.

According to Bello, the terminal now has capacity to process 500 passengers at the same time, an improvement from the 300 capacity in the past. This means that during Hajj the airport will efficiently accommodate and process 500 passengers, he said.

The Acting Airport Manager also said the facility provides service to schedule airline operators and also for non-schedule operators, which include the United Nations Humanitarian Air Services, World Food Programme and others.

“Then we have medicines and products here, that is Doctors Without Borders. We have ICRC as well, International Community of Red Cross. They also schedule, they do a scheduled non-commercial flight. We have the helicopter services here, global helicopters. In a day, we will have like five helicopter movements. So, there is a lot of traffic in Maiduguri,” he added.

Bello also disclosed that Maiduguri has strategic location advantage because it is the only airport that has borders with three countries, that is Chad, Cameroon and Niger and also closer to the Central African Republic, “which is a very, very good opportunity for us and FAAN to explore regional operations.”

“Maiduguri airport has the strategic advantage more than any other airport in the country, which gives us an edge. So, at FAAN, this is what we are looking for. We are taking it up with our headquarters, to see how we can harness this opportunity,” he said.

Bello explained that the airport could be a strong hub for regional and international operations, noting that when the airport starts its international flight service, it could kick-off with regional operations.

“We can have regional hub, we can have N’Djamena, Cameroon, we can have Niger as well. These are border countries, bordering Nigeria through Maiduguri. So, this regional hub can be extended into international routes as well. We have been doing the route analysis for quite a while now, and it’s proven to be something that would work. Yes, so that is what we are looking at now. We can have a flight, maybe, Maiduguri and N’Djamena, we can extend it, maybe, to start from Kano, Kano, Maiduguri and N’Djamena, then Maiduguri-Kano.

“These are routes, well-established routes, since Trans-Saharan trade. It can be reactivated. Before, it used to be camel and a road, maybe, but now we can introduce the flight advantage as well. Not only N’Djamena, we can extend it to Central Africa Republic, which is Bangui. That used to be the trade route in those days,” he further said. 

Bello also disclosed that a local operator in Maiduguri, wants to go into regional operations, using Maiduguri as hub.

“We have one of our operators here that has shown interest. It has done its own route analysis. We have been talking about it for years. Even yesterday (Wednesday, September 24, 2025), one of them called me and we had some discussions. So, they too are at their own level, they are doing it, and we at the station level, we are doing it,” he said.

In the area of security, he said security has improved significantly in the state, saying that the airport management has good relationship with the different security operatives and agencies like the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Border Control, State Security Service (SSS) and Customs.

Bello said that the Maiduguri airport played significant role during the annual airlift to the holy land this year.

“We have two states here, Yobe and Borno that use the airport during the Hajj airlift. And this is why, at airport level, I would say that we did excellently well, because this is one of the airports that does not have a Hajj terminal. We have the terminal, but due to the insurgency, the terminal has been overtaken by the military. So, we usually co-locate our operations, both domestic and Hajj operations, in one terminal.

“And this usually gives us a serious challenge. But, thank God, with the help of FAAN management, we are able to navigate through. Since I came here, we had two Hajj operations. And this is what we usually have because the two states operating here, Yobe and Borno, they have a large number of pilgrims. So just imagine having your domestic operation, doing it alongside your domestic operation. Sometimes we have two or three domestic operations,” he said.

Bello commended the management of FAAN for its efficiency and its determination to see that the airport renewal programme was completed in time, working with the Borno State Government.

He also spoke about cargo operations at the airport, saying that the cargo routes will follow the same pattern as the passenger movement in terms of international operations, adding that the state produces agriculture produce that are needed in the sub-region.

Maiduguri airport sits at a large expanse of land, seeking for utilisation; so, the airport is open for many kinds of economic activities that will reinforce the use of the airport as a major facility located at the northernmost end of Nigeria’s North-East region.