Uganda Airlines abandons hundreds of passengers in Lagos

By : Olusegun Koiki

Date: 8 January 2026 6:36pm WAT

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Uganda Airline Airbus A330-800neo

Uganda Airline Airbus A330-800neo

Uganda Airlines has once again stranded over one hundred passengers at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos.

The incident comes barely three weeks after the airline abandoned hundreds of passengers at the same airport following an issue involving one of its Airbus A330-800Neo aircraft.

This time, some affected passengers, including those who travelled to Lagos from other states, have been unable to leave the airport as planned for up to a week, allegedly without prior notification from the airline. One of the affected female passengers, who travelled from Onitsha, Anambra State, and did not want her name mentioned, said her flight was moved backward by 48 hours.

She told The Guardian that the revised schedule indicated that she and other passengers were billed to depart at 2 a.m. on Friday.

However, as of the time of filing this report, it was unclear whether the flight would eventually depart as scheduled. It was also gathered that another batch of passengers scheduled to travel from Lagos to Entebbe, Uganda, and onward destinations on Thursday for a 6 p.m. flight, were shocked when the flight failed to depart. Some of the passengers claimed that they did not receive any notification, either by email or text message, from the airline regarding the rescheduling of their flights.

Another female passenger decried the situation, saying she was asked to return home and then come back to the airport at 2:00 am the following day.

She said, “I didn’t receive any email from the airline informing me of the delay or cancellation of my flight. The flight was originally scheduled for 6:00 pm on Thursday, but I was surprised when I got here and they told me the flight had been cancelled or delayed.

“I was told to come back at 2:00 am the next day for the flight. That’s the dilemma I am in now.” Efforts to obtain an official statement from the airline were unsuccessful, as calls placed to its Country Manager were not answered.

In mid-December 2025, Uganda Airlines similarly stranded passengers at the Lagos airport, attributing the disruption to an incident involving one of its A330-800Neo aircraft upon landing.

At the time, it took the airline more than a week to evacuate the affected passengers from Lagos to their destinations through partner airlines, including RwandAir and Kenya Airways.

Uganda Airlines operates flights to Lagos twice weekly on Mondays and Thursdays. The airline also services the Abuja route.

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