Eritrea is also making $570,000 claims ” for unpaid services provided to the airline 25 years ago, which the airline has not settled,” as reported by TesfaNews, Eritrean news source.
It is also unclear if Ethiopian Airlines is notified about. The airline has not yet remarked about it.
In early September this year, Ethiopian Airlines suspended flights to Asmara after the Eritrean government allegedly froze the bank accounts of the airline in Asmara.
The airlines learned about account freeze when an Ethiopian Airlines agent in Asmara attempted to deposit cash from ticket sales on August 31. The airlines claimed that that “made it difficult to make service payments to the Eritrean government and also to Ethiopian Airlines employees in Asmara,” and the airlines had to suspend operation. The amount of money that the Eritrean government froze from Ethiopian Airlines Bank account in Asmara is unspecified.
Before suspending the flight, Ethiopian airlines had two daily flights to the Eritrean capital.
Eritrean Civil Aviation was complaining about unfair ticket pricing and “lost luggage” in the past few months. However, the “unpaid” service fee from over 25 years ago – apparently before the two years Ethio-Eritrean war – was not mentioned at any point during the recent controversy.
