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Emirati low-cost airlines flydubai (FZ, Dubai Int’l) and Air Arabia (G9, Sharjah) have found themselves in the midst of a political tug of war between Somalia and Somaliland, an unrecognized self-proclaimed territory that is considered internationally as part from Somalia.
Airlines have been told to apologize to the Somaliland people and government after they adhered to a Somali government ban on international flights imposed due to COVID-19. A flydubai flight on March 19, 2020 en route to the Somaliland capital Hargeisa returned to Dubai by order of the Somalia Civil Aviation Authority (SCAA).
Wounded by this apparent disregard for their autonomy, the Somaliland government, in response, revoked the route licenses of flydubai and Air Arabia. Following a heated debate during a ministerial council meeting on October 18, 2020, the government of Somaliland extended the ban, demanding an apology from the two carriers and that they should reach a regulatory agreement with their own regulator, the Airports Authority and Somaliland Civil Aviation. (SCAAA).
Commenting on this to SAHAN TV in Hargeisa, Somaliland Finance Minister Saad Ali Shire Naleye reiterated that the ban would only be lifted if carriers apologized and engaged directly with Somaliland on route rights.
He denied that the ban was politically motivated. “We need to correct any insinuation that the ban on the two Emirati airliners is politically oriented,” he said, citing reasons related to “a non-existent operating agreement.”
The Finance Minister acknowledged that the services of low-cost airlines were imperative for competition in the local market and that their absence negatively affected airport revenues and air cargo transportation from Europe and the UAE.
The Somaliland Sun reported that flydubai had disclosed that it had initiated negotiations with the Somaliland government, but that Air Arabia had yet to comment.
Somaliland is located in northwestern Somalia, on the southern coast of the Gulf of Aden. It borders the rest of Somalia to the east, Djibouti to the northwest, and Ethiopia to the south and west. Hargeisa is its capital and largest city. The Somaliland government maintains informal ties with some foreign governments.