IPOB’s sit-at-home hampers Ethiopian Airlines’ flight to Enugu

The planned resumption of Ethiopian Airlines’ flight to Enugu after over two years was stalled Friday due to the sit-at-home ordered by the outlawed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), Daily Trust Saturday has learnt.

Ethiopian Airlines had announced on September 19 that it would resume flights to Enugu, the eastern part of Nigeria from October 1, to be operated three times a week with B787 Dreamliner.

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It would be recalled that Ethiopian Airlines stopped flights to Enugu in 2019 when the federal government closed the airport for repair of the runway.

The resumption of flight was planned to coincide with the October 1 Independence Day anniversary, according to the ET general manager in Nigeria, Shimeles Arage.

Arage said the flight to Enugu on the Independence Day would reinforce Ethiopian Airlines’ good relationship with Nigeria since the first flight in 1960.

But the expected resumption of the flight did not hold due to the “tense situation” in the South-East, it was learnt.

A source told Daily Trust Saturday that the flight had been “suspended indefinitely” while a new date would be communicated in due course.