Ethiopian Airlines has failed to cooperate with Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) to help recover Ahmed Onawale, a Lagos based software engineer’s, $424.49, which he lost to a failed flight booking in 2022. The airline has also halted correspondence with GTB, Onawale’s bank, on the status of the withheld funds.

The Lagos-based software engineer told FIJ that he tried booking an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Nairobi to Lagos on May 6, 2022, but it failed.

He booked another flight on Kenyan Airlines that same day, but little did he know that $424.49 had been deducted from his bank account for the failed Ethiopian Airlines flight booking.

It was not until four days after the failed flight booking that he received an alert from his bank notifying him of a $424.49 debit for the failed Ethiopian Airlines flight booking.

He contacted Ethiopian Airlines to request a refund but was told that the transaction was voided and the payment was with his bank.

Onawale contacted his bank and was informed that the transaction was successful, but the merchant rejected the chargeback to recover the funds.

He told FIJ that GTB conducted a series of investigations to aid the recovery of his funds, but Ethiopian Airlines kept telling him the transaction was voided.

READ ALSO: Ethiopian Airlines Held On to a Nigerian’s N1.6m for One Month. They Refunded It 3 Days After FIJ’s Story

Onawale was tossed between the bank and the airline multiple times until the bank informed him that Ethiopian Airlines had stopped responding to their correspondence and there was nothing they could do.

READ ALSO: Ethiopian Airlines Running Away From Refunding Nigerian’s N1.7m

“I went back to GT Bank a second time with the response from the airline but they repeated the same thing after their second investigation. When I contacted the airline again, they said the ticket had been voided. I was tossed around between the airline and GT Bank,” He told FIJ on October 25.

“GT Bank told me after their third investigation that the airline had stopped responding to them and there was nothing they could do.”

FIJ emailed Ethiopian Airlines on October 29, but they did not respond.

There have been several other similar stories of Ethiopian Airlines.

In September, FIJ reported that Ethiopian Airlines was withholding a N1,691,736 refund from Mary Emelieze Udeh, an Abuja resident who, despite making payments for the Lagos-Toronto flight on Ethiopian Airlines, was unable to proceed with the flight booking.