A Nigerian woman has remained missing in Qatar for more than 72 hours after leaving Hamad International Airport in Doha, raising concerns among her family and Nigerian authorities.

The 37-year-old woman travelled from Lagos to Doha aboard Qatar Airways flight QR1408 on Tuesday and was confirmed to have exited the airport after collecting her luggage.

However, her whereabouts became unknown after she left the terminal.

The Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection at the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, Michael Achimugu, said the airline had reviewed CCTV footage and confirmed that the woman arrived in Doha, collected her luggage and left the airport.

According to him, the next step is to determine whether she made it to the hotel where she had booked accommodation.

Achimugu explained that Qatar visa bookings are linked to hotel reservations, making the accommodation an important lead in efforts to locate her.

He said Discover Qatar would verify the booking and establish whether the woman checked into the hotel after leaving the airport.

The NCAA official added that public holidays had affected the pace of the investigation, but further checks were expected to provide more information about her movements.

He said that if the woman did not arrive at the hotel, authorities would escalate the matter and broaden the search.

The development has heightened concerns within the woman’s family, particularly as she was travelling to Qatar for the first time and reportedly had no friends in the country.

Her brother, Jonathan Jibo, had earlier raised the alarm after losing contact with her.

The family said the woman communicated with her brother through WhatsApp while her flight was approaching Doha, but contact was subsequently lost.

Accommodation had reportedly been arranged and paid for before her journey, while an individual assigned to pick her up from the airport was unable to locate her.

The woman, who had worked at Lagos airport for almost 12 years, was expected to commence employment in Qatar weeks after her arrival.

Achimugu said he had also alerted the airline to concerns about possible human trafficking or forced labour, stressing that establishing whether she reached her hotel would be crucial to determining the next stage of the investigation.

Meanwhile, the family has appealed to Nigerian authorities, including the Nigerian Embassy in Qatar, to intensify efforts to locate her.

As the search enters another critical stage, the family is awaiting further information from authorities on the woman’s whereabouts.