Ethiopian: Now Boarding

Ethiopian Airlines is the biggest in African continent. How does it compete with Kenyan Airways?
Yes, Ethiopian is the biggest airlines in Africa and one of the few fastest growing airlines in the World. 

We have the best Network in Africa with state of the art aircrafts. We fly to almost all African countries, we are the best cargo operators in Africa, and no other carrier has as good a cargo network in Africa.  Moreover, this year, for the first time in history, Ethiopian has taken the leading position from South African and has become the largest Africa Carrier both in terms of Revenue and Profit. We compete not only with Kenyan Airlines but also with other African, Gulf and European Carriers. When you compare the fleet size for South Africa or Egypt air, Ethiopia has less no of fleets. But in terms of revenue we have scored better than these carriers, which is a good performance of Ethiopian airlines service.

We believe competition is a driving force for growth and success and we are working hard to endure the ever-increasing competition.

Has Ethiopian airlines become a driving force for driving the tourism of Ethiopia? How?
EA started its flight to domestic tourist destinations long ago. In all international offices we promote tourism.  We have tied up with major tour operators. Ethiopian used to and is working hard to promote Ethiopian Tourism. Unfortunately, though Ethiopia has a lot to offer for tourists, it has not been promoted at the desired level in the past. However, now more focus is given on Tourism. Tourism board is now established in an organized manner by Ethiopian Government, where EA CEO is the Chairperson. EA has also launched ET Holidays package and we are working on promoting Ethiopia as destination or as a combined package with other African destinations. As initial stage, there are lots of challenges and requires hard work and investment, but we have no doubt that it will be successful and pays the investment.

What proportion of your total passengers are Indians?
I might not have an exact figure, but about two third of our passengers from New Delhi are Indians travelling on Business.

Why should Indians travel to Ethiopia?
Firstly, we have the best Network and excellent inflight service to most of African destinations. That is the main reason for Indians to travel with Ethiopian Airline. We started first airline to connect Africa with Indian subcontinent before any of the current operators came in to picture.  I believe our long years and best service with our continued effort to meet the expectation of our customers has made us preferred carrier for Indian passengers.

Also, Indians and Ethiopians are very warm tropical countries. They have had a very long relationship; there are huge Indian communities in Ethiopia and especially in the fields of education (University, Lecturers) and IT. Currently Indians travel to Ethiopia for business and for family visit because of the economic relations between the two countries.

We are planning to launch a lot of activities to promote Indian tourism to our country. And recently there also is also cultural center launched in New Delhi, the first of its kind in India. We hope that will help to promote Ethiopian tourism for Indians.
 
What are your future plans for Indian market?
We have expansion plan in India both by opening new destinations in major Indian Cities as well as increasing frequency and upgrading aircrafts on the existing daily flights to/from Mumbai and New Delhi.

Moreover, following the recent event of Air India joining the STAR Alliance, we have already started expanding our existing partnership and cooperation. We are very optimistic that both National Carriers and respective countries in particular and Africa and Indian Subcontinent in general will benefit from the partnership.