Ethiopian Airlines in Nigeria has banned the infamously nicknamed “Ghana Must Go” bags from their flights there.
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.
Now, the airline says, the ubiquitous carriers, a favourite of traders, can badly affect airport equipment.
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”.
There is an exception. The bags could be used if they were “adequately packed in a carton or hardcover rectangular container”.
Ethiopia Airlines operates several domestic and regional routes out of Nigeria’s commercial hub, Lagos.
Turning an iconic plastic bag into high fashion
The bags are very popular across Africa, and much of the rest of the world, and can be seen in many airports.
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.