FlightCom — Edition 108 — September 2017

38 FlightCom Magazine

Interview

Words: Graeme Wuth

Ethiopian Airlines is the posterchild for airlines in Africa, and proves that state-owned

African carriers can be successful. At the Air Finance Africa Summit held in Johannesburg

in May this year, Nick Fadugba, summit host and CEO of African Airline Services, spoke

to Meseret Bitew about the secret to operating a successful government-owned, African

airline, route and fleet expansion, joint-ventures, and long-term strategies.

FACE TO FACE

with Ethiopian Airlines Acting CFO,

MESERET BITEW

Ethiopian Airlines is 100%

government-owned. Through much

of Africa, being government-owned

is associated with failing airlines,

and yet Ethiopian Airlines is truly

successful. How does Ethiopian

Airlines make their partnership with

government work?

There is a common perception that for

any organisation to be successful, it has to be

privately owned, but Ethiopian Airlines has

proven that this is not the case. The major

contributing factor to an organisation’s

success is not who owns the organisation,

rather it is how that organisation operates,

and, in the case of government ownership,

how the government is involved.

Ethiopian has had various types of

governments during its 71 years of operation,

but in all cases, these governments have

behaved in the interest of the airline, even

during times of turmoil and domestic

hardship. Our government doesn’t want our

CEO to spend all his time in government

offices. It also doesn’t want to change the

airline’s CEO every six months. There is

a commitment from government not to

intervene in the day-to-day operations of the

airline. The government’s role is rather to be

involved in the broad strategies and goals of

the airline.

Ethiopian Airlines Acting

CFO, Meseret Bitew: 'If

there is no management

stability, successfully

implementing long-term

plans is not possible.'