Ethiopian Airlines on Friday demanded that the BBC corrects a news report that cited the carrier’s CEO as saying that it was unsafe to fly over Somalia’s airspace.
The report, published on the websites of the broadcaster’s Somali and Amharic services on Friday, said the airline had stopped using Somalia’s airspace for its flights to Asia.
The report quoted Mesfin Tasew, the Group Chief Executive Officer of Ethiopian Airlines, as telling the BBC: ” The company took the decision because it did not receive ‘a safe aviation service’ from Somalia’s air traffic controllers.”
Mesfin Tasew also allegedly linked the move to a decision in January by Somalia to turn away an Ethiopian Airlines plane transporting officials from Ethiopia to Somaliland, allegedly due to lack of a proper permit to land in Hargeisa.
He also reportedly cited an incident earlier this month in which Somali aviation officials allegedly gave wrong instructions to two international flights using the country’s airspace.
Somali officials denied giving wrong information to pilots and insisted they were in full control of their country’s airspace.
Ethiopian Airlines said on X that the BBC report was “inaccurate and distorted” and denied stopping flying over Somalia.
“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,” it said in a statement on the social media platform.
The company added that its CEO “did not state that it is unsafe to fly over [the] Somali airspace.
“Accordingly, we request BBC Amharic to correct the report it has issued on the subject,” it said.
The statement concluded: ” We have also verified that [a] letter being circulated on social media claiming to be from Ethiopian Airlines sent to IATA is fake and Ethiopian Airlines never wrote such a letter to IATA.”
IATA, or the International Air Transport Association, is a trade association of the world’s airlines.
The BBC has not responded to the statement.
The report on the matter was still on its website as of Saturday morning.
Somalia says its airspace is safe
The Somali Civil Aviation Authority (SCAA) said on February 24 that the country’s airspace was under its full control and that there was no security or risk issue.
” The SCAA guarantees the safety of all flights and passengers that use Somalia’s airspace,” it said in a two-sentence post on X.
It came after Somaliland said in a statement that a Qatar Airways flight from Doha and destined for Uganda was incorrectly instructed by air traffic controllers in Mogadishu.
The flight allegedly found itself on a collision course with an Ethiopian Airlines aircraft that had departed from Addis Ababa and was en route to Dubai.
“But fortunately, the TCAS (Traffic Avoidance Collision System) device attached to the plane gave an urgent warning and told the presence of the other plane,” the Somaliland statement said on Feb. 24.
“The planes were at a dangerous distance from each other, but the equipment attached to the two planes was saved,” it added.
Qatar Airways and the SCAA did not publicly comment on the alleged incident, which came amid tensions between Somalia’s civil aviation authority and Somaliland.
Somaliland, which declared independence in 1991 but is not internationally recognized, insists it has the right to exercise control over its airspace
However, the SCAA, based in Mogadishu, says it is the sole agency mandated by the United Nations International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to manage Somalia’s airspace.
The row escalated in January after the SCAA denied an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Addis Ababa access to Somaliland, saying it lacked proper clearance to land in Hargeisa.
The turning away of that flight marked a major escalation of a diplomatic row between Somalia and Ethiopia over a maritime agreement Addis Ababa signed with Somaliland earlier this year.
