On Friday, BBC Amharic reported that Ethiopian Airlines had ceased utilizing the Somalian Airspace for its flights to Asia, citing concerns over the reliability of traffic services provided by Somalia Air Traffic Control.
The report referenced Mesfin Tassew, the CEO of Ethiopian Airlines, who purportedly mentioned discontinuing the use of Somalia’s airspace following an alleged incident the previous Saturday involving near collisions between Ethiopian Airlines and Qatar Airways.
In response, Ethiopian Airlines issued a brief statement on Friday, shared across social media platforms, denouncing BBC Amharic’s report as inaccurate and distorted. According to the statement, the airline refuted claims of halting operations in Somali airspace and requested corrections from BBC. As of now, there has been no response from BBC regarding this request.
The statement clarified:
“Ethiopian Airlines would like to clarify that recent reports by BBC Amharic and other social media outlets regarding Ethiopian Group CEO’s comments on the Somali airspace situation are inaccurate and distorted. Ethiopian Airlines has not ceased flying over Somali airspace, and the Ethiopian Airlines Group CEO did not express concerns about the safety of flying over Somali airspace. Therefore, we urge BBC Amharic to rectify the report it issued on this matter.
Additionally, we have confirmed that the circulating letter on social media, purportedly from Ethiopian Airlines to IATA, is fraudulent, as Ethiopian Airlines never authored such a letter to IATA.
Ethiopian Airlines Group”
Nevertheless, an incident earlier this year involved Somali aviation authorities denying entry to an Ethiopian Airlines chartered flight bound for Hargeisa, resulting in the plane being rerouted.
