We will collaborate with Nigeria on national carrier – ET
Mrs. Seble Wongel Azene, is the Manager ET-Holidays, a new special purpose vehicle set up by Ethiopian Airlines (ET) to drive tourism marketing. In this interactive session with aviation journalists at the ET headquarters in Addis Ababa, she speaks on the airlines’ expansion drive, its focus on Nigerian market and sundry issues. Excerpt:
Abrief on Ethiopian Airlines and its expansion efforts.
Ethiopian Airlines was established in 1945, but commenced its first international flight in 1946. At that time, majority of African countries had not gotten independence. Nigeria got independence on October 1, 1960. We commenced flight operations into Nigeria in November 1960, just after a month of independence because we are close allies to Nigeria. After these many years, we are operating into five cities in Nigeria. Thank you Nigerian travelers for contributing to the success of Ethiopian Airlines.
From the 60s, we started with linking western Africa to the East. It continued by acquiring modern jets and operating them in Africa. In 1973, we expanded to China. We were among the few airlines, three or four, that were operating internationally to China because of their ideology at the time. In 2000, we acquired the largest aircraft then B777-200. We expanded to the United States - New York and Washington. In 2011, we joined the largest airline alliance, the Star Alliance Group. In 2012, we extended our North American flight to Canada. The same year, we received the Dream Liner - the first in Africa and second in the world. In 2013, we expanded to Southern America Brazil. In 2015, we extended to Japan and we also opened in Los Angeles via Dublin.
Ethiopian Airline was established by Transworld Airlines, an American company. It doesn’t exist today but it was among the strongest airlines then. In the 60s when the airline was nationalised, we had our first Ethiopian CEO in 1962. That was when the jet service was introduced to Africa. That was the time the then Organization of African Unity was established, now African Union.
ET has played a major role in African unity and also contributed to the independence of several African countries. Today Africa is different. Nigeria is the largest economy, followed by South Africa. Africa is now known for positive things; a continent attracting foreign direct investments.
Passenger traffic and earnings
From statistics taken from 31st of July, 2017, we transport 8.8 million passengers per year and about 338,000 tonnes of cargo. The revenue is $2.7bn for 2016/2017 year. Our current fleet is 92 in service and we have ordered for 59 additional aircraft. Our average fleet age is five years which is pretty young compared to other big airlines in the world. We used Addis Ababa as our main hub. But the airport has become congested. So to alleviate this, ET has established two more hubs one in Lome, Togo and Lilongwe, Malawi.
We have over 100 international destinations and for cargo, we have 39 dedicated destinations. We have 19 local destinations. Regarding domestic movement by traffic volume, Nigeria is number one because of the population. But by domestic destinations Ethiopia is number one - 19 destinations. The company is fully owned by the government. We have more than 240 daily departures from Addis Ababa hub. During the last decade, ET has been growing exponentially. This year we were ranked as 57th out of the top 100 global commercial airlines. Last year, we were 63rd. Ethiopia is one of the African countries with double digit GDP growth rate. We are located at the exact centre of the world, making it easy to connect the East to the West and the North to the South and vice versa. Within 10 hours of flight radius, we can cover almost the whole world.
Our second biggest hub is Lome for strategic reasons. It is located in the middle of Western Africa and Central Africa making it easy for people of these locations to travel. Our third hub is in the southern part of Africa, in Lilongwe and ET will continue to connect the continent and feed international networks.
As a Star Alliance member, we will cover much more destinations. Domestically, we operate to the major tourist destinations thus supporting the tourism flow. We also have the largest network to tourist destinations across Africa thus contributing to tourism.
Largest cargo operations in Africa
As a major cargo operator in Africa, we have 39 freighter destinations in four continents served by six wide body freighters. About six weeks ago, we inaugurated the cargo terminal. So far it is the largest in Africa. Experts say it be the largest in the world. It has a capacity of 600,000 tonnes automated cargo per year. It has also the largest cooling system for perishable items. It is equipped with state of the art technology. We are targeting to give cargo services to the continent and the rest of the world.
Biggest aviation academy in Africa
We also have the oldest and largest maintenance facility. So Ethiopian Airlines is self sufficient in maintenance. We offer third party maintenance to countries in Africa and the Golf areas. Yu have visited the aviation academy. Almost all of us in this room and the Group CEO graduated from the Aviation Academy.
The academy gives training in piloting, maintenance, marketing and finance, cabin crew, simulator training on modern aircraft and by 2025 we will have capacity of accepting 4,000 trainees at a time. We also have our catering services with 100,000 meals per day. So we are self dependent on in-flight foods. The ground service is also operated and run by the company in Addis.
Vision 2015
We have the vision 2015, and we have clear targets where we like to reach. So by 2025, ET will like to become a $10bn annual revenue company. We will like to cover 120 international and 26 domestic destinations. From 92 aircraft, we will like to have 140 aircraft. From 8.8 million passengers per year to 22 million passengers per year. On cargo, from 600,00 tonnes of cargo to 820,000 tonnes of cargo per year. This vision has been pursued since 2011. The yearly target suggests we are in the right direction and we will meet the vision 2025 target.
ET’s corporate social responsibility
As a corporate social responsibility, Ethiopian Airlines participates in several humanitarian activities - feeding students in different locations, free medical treatments, and other initiatives but most importantly, we plant a tree for every new passenger on our flight. So we are contributing not only to Ethiopian economy but African green project. Last year, to commemorate the World Women Day and the organisation being an equal employer, we made all women function flight to Thailand and Kigali. During this day, everyone from the first contact, to the checking, the loaders, air traffic controllers, the cabin crew and captains were all women except the passengers.
For its success by many perspectives - by service, flight modernization, connectivity, network and social responsibility - Ethiopian Airlines has received a number of awards by recognized international rating companies.
On cargo operations to Nigeria
One of the destinations where we have dedicated cargo operations is Nigeria. From Nigeria to Asia, we have dedicated cargo, dedicated freighter. Of course the growth in export from Nigeria supports us to initiate a dedicated cargo in and out of Nigeria.
One of Africa’s biggest companies, the Dangote Group, is established here and there are materials they transport from Nigeria to Ethiopia. We operate dedicated flights to Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Enugu. In due course, we plan to operate cargo to Kaduna as well.
Any collaboration with Nigerians on its planned national carrier?
At Ethiopian we say it is a pan-African airline, it is not a mere statement. It’s a practical statement. We have established an airline in Lome, Togo. We are interested in developing the African aviation industry. Currently, more than 80 percent of the traffic in and out of Africa is taken by non-African airlines. So Ethiopian is working towards collaborating with a number of African airlines. We are already investing in the strategy of being a panAfrican airline and we are developing the aviation of Africa by African airline.
I don’t have the information that Ethiopian Airlines is involved in the establishing of a Nigerian national carrier but if requested by Nigeria, I know the management will be willing to collaborate.
What plans for tourism?
We haven’t been promoting enough of the country and Addis Abba. This is as result of several factors - our tradition is one. We used to be very shy. It was considered like a taboo to promote yourself. There were other factors. Until recently, when the government made the development of infrastructure a priority, industrialization of the otherwise agrarian economy that we began to open up. Also, government is committed to the development of tourism.