The decision was taken after a large hole developed at one end of the airport’s 3,610-meter runway.
German airline, Lufthansa, on Wednesday offloaded 45 passengers and the luggage of about 200 fully booked travellers from its Abuja-Frankfurt flight due to runway safety concerns at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport.
The decision was taken after a large hole developed at one end of the airport’s 3,610-meter runway. Authorities from the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) subsequently cordoned off that section, drastically reducing the available runway length for departing aircraft.
As a result, Lufthansa’s Airbus A330-300, a wide-body jet that typically requires a longer takeoff roll due to its size and weight, was unable to accelerate safely using the shortened stretch of runway.
To ensure a safe takeoff, the aircraft’s pilot had to offload excess weight by removing both passengers and baggage, allowing the plane to lift off within the limited available distance.
Speaking to THISDAY, Managing Director and CEO of Aero Contractors, Captain Ado Sanusi, a veteran pilot, confirmed that when a runway is shortened or not long enough, an aircraft must reduce its weight to generate sufficient thrust and achieve lift-off within the limited distance.
“In order to overcome the challenge posed by the reduced length of the runway, the aircraft had to find an effective way to take off from the usable length; so, you reduce the weight,” Sanusi was quoted as saying by THISDAY.
One of the affected passengers, who spoke to THISDAY on condition of anonymity, revealed that the 45 offloaded travellers were taken to the Abuja Continental Hotel by Lufthansa at around 4:00 a.m. the following morning. According to him, his rescheduled flight to Germany was now set for Sunday, July 27, 2025—four days after his original departure date.
He described chaotic scenes during the boarding process, as anxious passengers scrambled to secure seats. Although the airline reportedly called passengers in groups, it ultimately skipped over one group, later informing them that they would not be flying.
Those who did manage to board were forced to travel without their checked-in luggage, which was left behind due to time constraints and the logistical difficulty of sorting bags under pressure.
The flight, initially scheduled for 10:20 p.m., was first delayed to 10:50 p.m. and eventually departed much later. The airline’s failure to operate on schedule has left many passengers deeply frustrated, with some reportedly considering a class action lawsuit against Lufthansa.
Sources told THISDAY that at one point, the pilot considered cancelling the flight entirely, citing uncertainty over a damaged section of the runway—an issue made more precarious by light rain and poor weather conditions.
This development suggested that the pilot had not been informed of the damaged portion of the runway before the flight, raising questions about whether a proper Notice to Airmen (NOTAM)—which alerts pilots to critical information about airports—had been issued regarding the runway’s limitations.
The passenger said, “The incident was really saddening because I have not been in Nigeria for eight years and I faced this problem on my way back to Germany. What happened has disrupted the schedule of many of the passengers. Some were billed to resume work the following day and others had their appointments; so, it was saddening.
“But I liked the dedication of the staff of the airline who booked me for Sunday. They seemed very organised and friendly. They had to make sure that the offloaded luggage was in order before they moved us to Abuja Continental Hotel.”
“The time it would take to sort out the luggage and their owners and to further reduce the weight of the aircraft were the reasons why they offloaded all the checked in luggage. They paid for the hotel until Sunday when we will leave for our flight,” he told THISDAY.
THISDAY also gathered that the damaged part of the runway has been there for a long time and FAAN management has not attended to it.
Some of the airport staff expressed dissatisfaction with the hiccups the damaged runway was causing. Some of those who spoke to the passengers said that there had been notification of the damaged runway to the FAAN management, especially the airport manager of Abuja Airport, but no action had been taken so far.
However, in response to the incident, FAAN notified that it shut down the runway from midnight on Thursday until 4:00 am on Friday to carry out repair work on the damaged portion of the runway, which it described as a depression.
Additionally, the agency has issued a NOTAM to all airlines that use Abuja Airport to review their operations.
