Ethiopian suspends Eritrea ops after Asmara freezes account

Ethiopian Airlines (ET, Addis Ababa International) has suspended its flights to Eritrea's capital Asmara after the local authorities froze the airline's accounts and prevented it from repatriating funds to Ethiopia.

While the airline initially blamed unspecified "very difficult operating conditions in Eritrea", CEO Mesfin Tasew offered more details during a media briefing. He claimed that the Eritrean authorities have been increasingly hostile to the carrier in recent months, blaming it for numerous violations of passengers' rights but never presenting any proof of this. The freezing of the funds of the airline's Asmara station was the final straw.

The Eritrean Civil Aviation Authority previously said that it would ban Ethiopian Airlines on September 30, 2024, due to "general and systematic and organised passengers' luggage theft, pilferage, damage, prolonged delays and loss with no compensation", coupled with price hikes and "other irregularities".

Ethiopian Airlines served Asmara from Addis Ababa International daily, mostly using B737-8s. Some flights were operated with widebody B787-8s and B787-9s. The last service, on September 2, was flown by B787-8 ET-AOO (msn 34743), Flightradar24 ADS-B data shows.

OAG Traffic Analyser data shows that around a third of all Ethiopian Airlines passengers originating from Asmara connected in Addis Ababa to other flights, with Stockholm Arlanda and Entebbe being the main destinations.

Ethiopia and Eritrea resumed direct flights in 2018, 20 years after a border war between the two countries. Relations between Addis Ababa and Asmara have soured significantly again over the last few years.

With no active airlines based out of Eritrea, one of the most autarkic countries in the world, Asmara relies on foreign carriers to provide limited scheduled capacity. The ch-aviation schedules module shows the city is served by flydubai, Turkish Airlines, flynas, EgyptAir, and Tarco Aviation, but Ethiopian Airlines was the most important carrier accounting for almost a third of the total scheduled weekly capacity.