#FLY540 AIRCRAFT STOPPED FROM LANDING IN #JUBA
(Posted 15th August 2018)
Reports are coming in from the South Sudan capital Juba that a Fly540 flight yesterday afternoon from Nairobi to Juba was prohibited from entering South Sudanese airspace and not allowed to continue its journey and land in Juba.
The aircraft reportedly had to turn back and land in Nairobi again, leaving travelers in both directions stranded.
Flight 5H-0703’s passengers were according to one source advised by the airline that they would be refunded their fare today after being accommodated in hotels in Nairobi for the night.
Sources from Nairobi suggest the abrupt denial of landing rights for just one Kenyan airline may have to do with issues of outstanding fees but this could not be verified at this early hour.
Neither have officials at Juba’s airport nor the Civil Aviation Department responded to queries sent already last night.
South Sudan has been notoriously slow in allowing airlines to repatriate their ticket sales fund from Juba due to a lack of foreign exchange but also seems to refuse to be paid aviation related fees by foreign airlines from their local bank accounts in South Sudan Pounds so that at least part of those frozen funds can be utilised.
This situation some years ago led to the collapse of Jetlink which at the time had over 2 million US Dollars in ticket sales frozen while the Kenyan government stood idle, ranking their political buddyship with the Juba regime ahead of supporting their own private sector.
