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With the spread of the pandemic, thousands of airlines across the world have been grounded plunging the Aviation sector into a severe recession.
Amidst this gloom, one single Airlines –Ethiopian Airlines Group stands out with staunch optimism and has made a bold announcement.
The company CEO Tewolde Gebre Mariam has revealed that the Group is in talks with Mauritius and South Africa to revive their bankrupt airlines. According to his statement, Ethiopian Airlines and the Mauritian government are studying the prospects for a partnership or joint venture to revive their Airlines. With the ailing South African Airlines, Ethiopian has expressed its interest in holding negotiations.
Ethiopian Airlines had declared its ambitious vision to become the leading Africa airline by 2025. It seems, COVIS 19 has offered it a rare opportunity to crystallize its vision. Since 2018, Ethiopian has been steadily moving towards this vision when it bought a 45 percent stake in Zambia Airways, and was in talks for the revival of Ghana Airways. Ethiopian also operates Malawian Airlines and is in partnership with the privately-owned ASKY Airlines in Togo.
Its rival airlines in Africa are already reeling under the disastrous fall in business as a result of coronavirus. Large Airlines in the region such as Kenya Airways, Nigeria’s Arik Air, were near bankruptcy even before the Pandemic. Aviation experts say the 75-year-old Ethiopian Airlines has both the fleet and managerial strength to ease the burden of Africa’s struggling airlines. In the 2017-2018 financial year, Ethiopian had a fleet strength of 111 planes, more than any other airline on the continent, and flew to 106 destinations around the world. It stands apart as one of the few airlines that can boast of a modern fleet consistently recording a profit in Africa. This high standard managed to win permissions for Ethiopian Airlines to fly to several U.S. and European destinations that are still out of bounds for many African airlines. In recognition of its efficient service delivery, a wide network of flights, good safety record and reasonably priced tickets, the airline was voted as the Best Airline in Africa for the second year running in 2018 at the Skytrax World Airline Awards. Its entry into Star Alliance in 2011, gave access to more international routes, and collaboration with partner airlines.
The huge potential for African airlines has been well documented. However, aviation experts have pointed out that challenges like high taxation, high cost of fuel (which is around 35 percent higher than other regions), and the lack of an integrated intra-African network have been hindering the growth of the sector. Therefore, the Ethiopian’s bold move, deserves accolade particularly in view of the fact that the airline is set to lose one billion U.S. dollars in ticket sales in the current fiscal year ending June 2020. It may be recalled that more than a year earlier, the Airlines image was dented after the tragic crash of the Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET302 shortly after take-off from Addis Ababa en route to Nairobi, killing all 149 passengers and eight crew members. Even in the face of this tragedy, Ethiopian kept its head high and moved ahead announcing that, as a 4-star global airline with a high safety record “we represent the New Spirit of Africa and will continue to move forward”.
COVID 19, has brought a 70 percent drop in global air freight capacity. Leveraging on its extra capacity, Ethiopian is trying to support African countries’ meet both their export and import demands, by removing seats in its passenger planes to hold cargo. Aviation experts feel that such innovative moves will pave way for Ethiopian Airlines to be the leading Airlines of Africa.
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