By Dickson Omobola

Officials at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja have clarified reports that Lufthansa Airlines offloaded 45 passengers and all checked-in luggage on July 23, 2025, in order to take off from the runway, which had been shortened due to an ongoing construction work.

Last Friday, reports emerged that Lufthansa offloaded 45 passengers and the luggage of about 200 passengers booked on its Abuja-Frankfurt flight to reduce the weight of the aircraft and enable take-off from the shortened runway.

Some of the reports indicated that the incident occurred because maintenance was ongoing on the runway at the time, which prompted the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, to cordon off a section, thereby limiting aircraft from using the full length of the runway for take-off.

Lufthansa operated an Airbus A330-300 on that Wednesday night.

However, airport officials in Abuja, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, disclosed that other international airlines with wide-body aircraft similar to Lufthansa’s also operated under the same runway conditions without offloading passengers or luggage.

According to them, the airline might have taken a technical decision because it overbooked the flight and had excess luggage or the cockpit crew conversant with the runway condition at the time was changed, as Notice to Airmen, NOTAM, was issued to that effect by FAAN.

The source revealed that on the same July 23, British Airways operated Boeing B777 at 08:16, with 245 passengers  and 23 crew.

Qatar Airways operated Boeing B787  at 14:03, with 251  passengers and 12 crew; Ethiopian Airlines operated Boeing B777 LR aircraft  at 14:11, 264 passengers and 14 crew.

Also, Egypt Air operated Boeing B737-800 at 15:09, with 125 passengers and 7 crew; Africa World Airlines operated Embraer E145 at 1305HRS with 40 passengers and 4 crew; Asky Airlines operated B737 at 1719HRS with 64 passengers and 9 crew.

In addition, Turkish Airlines operated Airbus A330 at 2145HRS with 261 passengers and 10 crew; Air Cote D’ivoire operated Airbus A319 at 10:47, with 84 passengers and seven crew; Royal Air Maroc operated Boeing B737 – 0718HRS with 162 passengers and six crew and Air France operated Airbus A330  at 2152HRS with 215 passengers and 10 crew.

The source said: “So, you can see that it was not only Lufthansa that flew on that date. In fact, airlines that flew with wide body aircraft include British Airways, Qatar Airways, Ethiopian Airlines, Turkish Airlines, Lufthansa Airlines and Air France. I have to recall that Lufthansa on July 4 cancelled their flight and on 25 they didn’t depart with all the passengers. Lufthansa departed at 0015hrs.”

It should also be noted that the German airline did not issue any statement to indicate that it offloaded passengers and luggage because of the reduction of the runway distance, but that was what it explained to the passengers, justifying why they should drop from the flight along with all passengers checked-in luggage to be airlifted four days later, on July 27, 2025.

Meanwhile, FAAN completed maintenance work on the runway and operations returned to normal on July 25, 2025.