FlightCom — Edition 108 — September 2017

40 FlightCom Magazine

has increased flights to Asia. Why is

this?

The current international economic

trend – economic development and

movement – is moving from West to East

and from North to South, so increasing

flights to the East – to China – makes sense.

In our case, we operate four daily flights to

China, with the 777, to four different cities,

with more routes planned.

Flying to China is a key route for the

airline. I don’t know why airlines would

reduce frequencies to China – there must

be something wrong with the airline. Or,

maybe the airline is not well-positioned to

operate the route.

Fortunately, Ethiopia is well-positioned

to link the East with the UK and USA. So,

we want to develop this network more. Also,

if you draw a straight line between China

and Brazil, it goes right through Ethiopia.

At the end of the day, an airline’s job

is to transport people, so we must focus on

the major populations, and try to cover the

Middle East, India and China.

Let’s look at Ethiopian’s African

network. Ethiopian Airlines

pioneered East-West traffic on the

African continent. Now, it seems

that Ethiopian’s strategy is to build

hubs within Africa to overcome the

barriers to air travel.

Ethiopian Airlines is hopeful that

governments around Africa will ratify the

Yamoussoukro Decision (YD) soon so that

we will be able to operate in any African

country, as required. Unfortunately, very

few countries have signed the YD and so

it is difficult to operate routes in Africa.

Interestingly, some African countries

are more open to European carriers and

countries than they are to other African

operators.

In the past, African airlines were

carrying 40-50% of the African market.

Currently only 20% of passengers travelling

within Africa are being carried by African

airlines. Ethiopian Airlines wants to co-

operate with other African states and

support other African airlines to grow air

travel within Africa and protect the African

market for ourselves.

However, because of the barriers in

Africa, Ethiopian Airlines is planning to

develop regional hubs. We started a joint

venture in West Africa in 2010 with Asky

in Lomé, Togo, which is working well, and

we have another with Malawi Airlines. We

are willing to work with bigger countries,

but if these big countries are not willing to

work together to establish a hub to develop

aviation in the region, we will go to those

that are co-operative. In addition to it being

a voluntary agreement, the government must

commit not to intervene with the running of

the airline.

This is working in West and Southern

Africa to develop regional connectivity, but

I don’t know why airlines

would reduce frequencies

to China – there must be

something wrong with

the airline.