Saturday March 2, 2024
The Ethiopian Airlines on Friday dismissed a latest report from BBC Amharic “inaccurate and distorted.”
On Friday, BBC Amharic reported, it is not removed from the site, that “Ethiopian Airlines announced that it has stopped using the Somalian Airspace it has been using for flights to Asia.” The report went on to say that the decision is due to unreliable traffic service from Somalia Air Traffic Control.
The report even cited Mesfin Tassew, the CEO of Ethiopian Airlines as saying stopping use of Somalia airspace after an alleged incident last Saturday involving near collisions between Ethiopian Airlines and Qatar airways.
In a brief statement, issued on Friday, and shared on social media outlets, Ethiopian Airlines said BBC Amharic’s report is incorrect and distorted. The airlines did not stop suing the Somali Airspace. The airline has requested the BBC to make corrections to the story it published. BBC is yet to respond to it.
The statement reads:
“…Ethiopian Airlines would like to clarify that the recent reports on BBC Amharic and other social media outlets about Ethiopian Group CEO’s comments on the Somali airspace situation are inaccurate and distorted. Ethiopian Airlines has not stopped flying over the Somali airspace and Ethiopian Airlines Group CEO did not state that it is unsafe to fly over Somali airspace. Accordingly, we request BBC Amharic to correct the report it has issued on the subject. We have also verified that the letter being circulated on the social media claiming to be from Ethiopian Airlines sent to IATA is fake and Ethiopian Airlines never wrote such a letter to IATA.
Ethiopian Airlines Group”
There was,however, an incident earlier this year whereby Somalian aviation authorities denied Hargeisa bound Ethiopian Airlines chartered flight and the plane was turned back.