Nigerians were left in shock after Ethiopian Airlines in the country placed an embargo on the infamous ‘Ghana Must Go’ bags from their flights there.
The airline noted that the bag, famous among traders, could affect airport equipment thus necessitating the ban.
In a statement Ethiopia Airlines said the ban was introduced because of “the frequent occurrence of damages to the conveyor belts at various airports, resulting in significant costs incurred by the airlines involved”.
However, Ethiopian Airlines in Nigeria noted that travellers will only be exempted to carry them if they are packed in cartons or hardcover rectangular containers.
Ethiopia Airlines operates several domestic and regional routes out of Nigeria’s commercial hub, Lagos.
The luggage got the nickname in Nigeria in the 1980s, when hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants, many of whom were Ghanaian, were expelled.
People fled with the red-and-blue checked bags on their backs.
They also go by different names. In Kenya, for example, they are known as Nigeria bags, and Zimbabweans call them Botswana bags.
In 2017 KLM and Air France, imposed a ban because they said the bags could unravel and clog up baggage delivery systems.
