The Federal Government has signed a concession agreement transferring the management of the Port Harcourt International Airport to a private operator, PH Airport Limited, in a deal it says will modernise one of the country’s busiest aviation gateways without costing a single worker their job. The agreement was signed by the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, and the Group Managing Director of PH Airport Limited, Eyo Asuquo, after weeks of consultations with aviation unions.
The handover is the clearest sign yet that a long-stalled drive to bring private capital into Nigeria’s airports is finally moving. It comes months after the government concessioned the Akanu Ibiam International Airport in Enugu to Aero Alliance Limited, a ceremony at which Keyamo had promised that Port Harcourt would follow within weeks.
For an airport once treated as a hard sell, the turnaround is striking. When the previous administration opened the Nigeria Airports Concession Programme to bidders in 2022, Lagos, Abuja and Kano attracted preferred bidders while Port Harcourt drew none. Keyamo has said more than six firms competed for the facility this time, a shift he attributes to renewed investor confidence.
The deal has not been free of friction. Aviation unions, led by the National Union of Air Transport Employees, staged protests and warned for much of the past year that concessioning could trigger mass redundancies. The union’s airport branch also questioned the economics, claiming the terminal earns about N1.1 billion a month, far more than the roughly N2.5 billion a year it said the arrangement would fetch, and arguing that the government risked parting with a profitable asset too cheaply. The terms eventually signed were not disclosed at the ceremony.
Those concerns appear to have been addressed, at least on paper. Speaking for the unions at the signing, their representative, Ben Nnabue, said organised labour would not back any arrangement that threatened members’ livelihoods, adding that the endorsement followed detailed engagement on what the concession would mean for staff and for the airport’s future. The minister’s office said the unions gave their support after receiving assurances that no worker would be laid off as a result of the deal.
Asuquo framed the agreement as more than a change of management. He pointed to Port Harcourt’s position in the Gulf of Guinea as a commercial advantage, and said the company intended to invest in infrastructure, raise operating standards and expand business activity around the airport, promising additional jobs rather than losses.
The wider context helps explain the government’s enthusiasm. Port Harcourt, in Omagwa, Rivers State, serves the heart of Nigeria’s oil and gas industry, yet its reputation has long lagged its importance. A decade ago it carried the embarrassing distinction of being ranked the world’s worst airport in a widely cited 2015 travellers’ survey, a label the authorities disputed but never fully shed. A new terminal opened in 2018, and in July this year the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority granted the airport full certification to international standards, clearing it for expanded international operations.
Revenue records from the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria also show why private operators now see value. Lagos remains by far the largest earner among the federal airports, followed by Abuja at about N81 billion in a recent period, while Port Harcourt brought in roughly N10.7 billion. The government argues that private management can help narrow that gap through better service and new commercial activity.
The signing was witnessed by senior aviation officials, including the Director-General of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, Chris Najomo, and the Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, Olubunmi Kuku. The renamed facility, now officially the Obafemi Jeremiah Awolowo International Airport, is still widely known by its original name.
Port Harcourt is the second of five major airports marked for concession to be handed over, after Enugu. By the government’s own account, Lagos, Abuja and Kano, the three that investors once chased hardest, are yet to secure operators under the current round, leaving the programme’s biggest prizes still in play.