MMIA posts fastest growth in Africa in September with 470,000 seats
Lagos’ Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) recorded the fastest growth in scheduled seat capacity among Africa’s 10 largest airports in September, with 470,000 scheduled seats. The post MMIA posts fastest growth in Africa in September with 470,000 seats appeared first on Nairametrics .
In September 2026, Lagos' Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) achieved the fastest growth in scheduled seat capacity among Africa's 10 largest airports, with a record 470,000 seats. This represents a 24.1% increase compared to September 2025, adding 90,600 seats. OAG's African Aviation Market Data revealed MMIA surpassed Casablanca's Mohammed V International Airport, which grew by 13.5%, adding 87,500 seats.
Despite being the largest airport in Africa with 1.79 million scheduled seats, Cairo International Airport remained the ninth largest in terms of capacity among Africa's top 10 airports.
Nigeria demonstrated the most significant capacity growth among Africa's top 10 aviation markets in September, adding 322,800 scheduled airline seats. This brought the total capacity to 1.19 million, a 37.4% increase from 864,100 seats in September 2025. Africa's total scheduled airline capacity reached 25.8 million seats in September, a 9.4% year-on-year growth. International capacity made up 78% of the total, while domestic capacity increased by 11.6%.
MMIA's scheduled capacity had been among the fastest-growing among Africa's busiest airports over the past few months, increasing from 417,622 seats in June to 480,000 in August before a slight decline to 470,000 in September. Nigeria's wider aviation market also experienced strong growth, with scheduled capacity rising 44.5% year-on-year to 1.22 million seats in July, and domestic capacity increasing 54.8% to 921,100 seats.
Air Peace, Nigeria's largest airline, recorded the fastest capacity growth among Africa's top 10 airlines in September, with a 54.7% year-on-year increase to 354,804 seats, returning the airline to Africa's top 10 by scheduled capacity. The Federal Government's approval of the Nigeria Aircraft Leasing Company in May aims to improve domestic airlines' access to aircraft, as Air Peace's expansion reflects the broader increase in scheduled capacity across Nigeria's aviation market.
Written by urgent.news from Nairametrics's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
