More than 66,000 passengers were airlifted from the Ilorin International Airport, while 2,812 aircraft movements were also recorded from January to December in 2015. These figures were released yesterday in Ilorin by the Operation unit of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Ilorin.

The passengers figure, FAAN stated, was above the 2014 statistics which had a total of 63,441 passengers. However, the number of aircraft movement in 2014 was more with a total of 3,132, which means that more air passengers travelled through the airport than the number of aircraft landing via Ilorin route during the year under review. The Airport Manager, Alhaji Abubakar Muhammed Bibi, disclosed that the airport recorded a higher number of passengers in December, with a total of 6,861 passengers. However, it recorded low turn-out in May with a total of 4,356 passengers, while a few aircraft landed at the airport in December. Bibi attributed the low aircraft turnout to "the untimely scarcity of Jet A1 (aviation fuel) nationwide between October and November last year.