KEY POINTS

• ASRTI hosts a Business Breakfast Meeting in Lagos on March 26 focused on aviation hub development.
• FAAN CEO Olubunmi Kuku will deliver the lead paper on practical pathways to hub infrastructure.
• Panelists include Ibom Air CEO George Uriesi, Bi-Courtney chairman Wale Babalakin, and Aero Contractors MD Ado Sanusi.

Nigeria’s aviation sector is heading into a high-level conversation about one of its most ambitious long-term goals: becoming Africa’s dominant air transport hub, and what that status could mean for the country’s economy.

The Aviation Safety Round Table Initiative will convene its 2026 first-quarter Business Breakfast Meeting on March 26 in Lagos, themed “Boosting Aviation Sector Contribution to GDP: The Importance of an Aviation Hub.” The Nigeria aviation hub GDP discussion will bring together airline operators, airport managers, allied service providers, and industry analysts to move beyond aspiration and examine concrete policy and infrastructure requirements.

Kuku to set the tone

ASRTI Publicity Secretary Albinus Chiedu said the meeting aims to examine how Nigeria can leverage its geographic position and growing passenger traffic to establish itself as a central routing point for air travel across the continent. An aviation hub, where an airline concentrates operations and routes passengers from multiple origins through a central airport, is widely regarded as a multiplier for a country’s broader aviation and also economic development.

Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria Managing Director Olubunmi Kuku will further deliver the lead paper, which ASRTI says will lay out practical pathways for building the hub infrastructure and operational efficiency Nigeria needs to compete seriously on a continental scale.

The Nigeria aviation hub GDP conversation will then open into two panel sessions. The first draws airline and airport leaders including Ibom Air CEO George Uriesi, Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Chairman Dr Wale Babalakin, Aero Contractors Managing Director Capt. Ado Sanusi, and Djamel Muradov of Air France/KLM.

Allied businesses take centre stage in second panel

Furthermore, the second panel shifts focus to aviation support industries, examining how fuelling, ground handling, engineering, logistics, and in-flight catering can generate additional economic value within a hub system.

Speakers include Dr Thomas Ogungbangbe of CITA Aviation Fuelling, Dr Segun Musa of Widescope International Group, and Dr Seinde Fadeni, Chairman of NAHCO Plc and LSG Sky Chefs.

ASRTI, which has run its Business Breakfast Meeting series since 2015, said the platform has shaped policy conversations on safety, infrastructure, airline financing, and regulatory reform across more than a decade of quarterly gatherings.