In February 2026, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria closed Terminal 1 at Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos — completely, without exception. Not in stages, not with one section sealed while another limped on, but a full shutdown of a facility that has processed Nigeria's international air passengers for nearly five decades.
The closure marks the formal beginning of what FAAN has described as the most extensive overhaul of the airport in its history: a ₦712 billion rehabilitation and expansion programme approved by the Federal Executive Council, designed to rebuild Terminal 1 from its structural frame upward and deliver a facility capable of handling the demands of modern international aviation.
FAAN Managing Director Mrs Olubunmi Kuku put the situation plainly in communications to stakeholders ahead of the shutdown: the terminal's concrete skeleton, confirmed sound by structural engineers, would be retained. Everything else — every wire, every pipe, every mechanical and electrical system governing how light flows, how air circulates, and how passengers are processed — had aged beyond what renovation could address. The decision was to strip it all out and start again from the inside out.
A Facility Built for a Different Era
The scale of the challenge is visible in the numbers. Terminal 1 was originally designed in the 1970s to handle fewer than 200,000 passengers annually. By 2024, it was processing more than 4.33 million international travellers through its gates. The air conditioning system had become chronically unreliable, baggage conveyor belts broke down regularly, and the internal layout — unchanged in its essentials for decades — was producing passenger processing times of up to two hours at peak periods.
Henry Agbebire, FAAN's Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, was direct about the goal: "The goal is not cosmetic improvement. The goal is transformation."
The project is being executed in six strategic phases. The first focuses on the complete structural rehabilitation of Terminal 1, including the installation of a modern glass curtain wall, a reconfigured internal layout to separate departing and arriving passengers, new fast check-in systems, automated e-passport control gates, latest security screening and CCTV infrastructure, and advanced passenger data protection and analytics systems.
What Will Be Built
Terminal 2 will be expanded to accommodate wide-body aircraft, with extensions to both the apron and the finger — the boarding bridge section — and existing hangars within the expansion zone will be relocated. A connection building will link Terminal 1 and Terminal 2, while a skywalk will integrate the multi-level car park with T2, unifying what has until now been a fragmented airport campus into a single, navigable passenger environment.
A redesigned road network will replace the access arrangements that have long produced the congestion familiar to anyone who has dropped off or collected a passenger at MMIA. New independent ring roads and a bridge leading directly to Terminal 2 are part of the landside improvements. For connecting passengers, dedicated transit zones are being introduced that will allow travellers to transfer between flights without re-clearing immigration — a fundamental capability that MMIA has lacked and that has constrained Lagos's ability to function as a genuine hub airport.
On technology, the project introduces electronic boarding gates, biometric processing, upgraded screening equipment, advanced surveillance infrastructure, and smart passenger-processing systems aligned with the direction the global airport industry is moving — toward automation, artificial intelligence, digital connectivity, and seamless passenger movement.
Keeping Lagos Connected During Construction
To maintain international connectivity while Terminal 1 is rebuilt, FAAN has deployed a temporary departure hall of approximately 8,000 square metres, fully equipped with check-in facilities, security screening, ticketing, waiting areas, VIP lounges, dining and retail outlets, emergency medical assistance, and accessible facilities for passengers with reduced mobility. The temporary hall accommodates up to 1,500 passengers during peak hours and features three boarding gates. Arrival procedures remain at Terminal 2 throughout the construction period.
FAAN has urged passengers to arrive well ahead of scheduled departure times and to follow traffic and access advisories closely, acknowledging that circulation patterns, parking arrangements, and access points will continue to shift as the project advances through its phases.
What Passengers Can Expect on Reopening
FAAN projects that on completion — approximately 22 months from the February 2026 shutdown — the combined capacity of Terminals 1 and 2 will reach approximately 7,040 passengers per hour, translating to roughly 17.6 million passengers annually. That represents a three- to fourfold increase on pre-rehabilitation throughput levels, and would position MMIA among the leading international airports in West and Central Africa by processing capacity.
The authority has framed the project explicitly as a national statement — one designed not merely to improve an airport, but to change the first impression that Nigeria makes on the millions of international passengers, investors, and visitors who pass through its primary gateway each year. Whether the project delivers on that ambition within its budget and timeline will be watched closely by the aviation industry, Nigeria's international airline partners, and the passengers who have borne the weight of a facility stretched well beyond its design limits for a generation.
