Ethiopian Airlines named as the number one airline in Africa by Skytrax, amidst a series of allegation of using its flagship carrier to transport weapons from Addis Ababa to airports in Eritrea after the start of Ethiopia’s conflict in the Tigray region in 2020.
The awards were based on over 13 million surveys collected over 23 months, combing normal travel and pandemic travel, according to Skytrax. Next to Ethiopian Airlines, South African Airways, and Kenya Airways ranked second and third best airline in the continent.
It is for the fourth time when Ethiopian named as the Best Airline in Africa and Best Business Class in Africa for 3rd consecutive years. Ethiopian has also been placed 37th in the World's Top 100 Airlines for 2021 based on the latest ranking by Skytrax.
"Keeping up with the same phase as before Covid had been a challenging task. However, here at Ethiopian we never gave up, keeping our loyalty of serving at all times to our customers, we never stopped flying," said Tewolde Gebremariam, the Group's CEO.
Following an investigation by CNN, alleging the Airlines for using its planes to transport weapons between the international airport in Addis Ababa and Eritrean airports in Asmara and Massawa in November 2020, Ethiopia denied the allegation, asserting it “strictly complies with all National, regional and International aviation related regulations.