Ethiopian
Airlines is in talks with the governments of Ghana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and
Uganda with a view to assisting them in establishing new national carriers.
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| Ethiopian Airlines Bole Airport File |
The Star
Alliance carrier’s chief executive Tewolde Gebremariam says it has submitted
formal proposals to all four countries and that some of these “are at an
advanced stage”.
Gebramariam
says the discussions are heavily influenced by the strategy being adopted by
each government such as “what type of airline they want, what type of routes,
and what type of co-operation, joint venture, equity [they want]”.
He adds: “So
in our case we are open to all kinds of cooperation because we really want them
to develop their national airlines.”
Ghana, Uganda
and Zambia do not currently have state-owned airlines, while Zimbabwe is served
by Air Zimbabwe which began operations in 2013.
Ethiopian
Airlines already has strategic stakes in Malawian Airlines and
Togo’s ASKY.
Gebramariam
says the Addis Ababa-based airline is also at an advanced stage of discussions
for co-operation with Congo Airways. “We are discussing for any kind of
bigger co-operation, but at the moment we are supporting them technically,” he
says.
“They [the
government] have not made a decision to allow foreign investors in the airline,
I think they want to grow domestically between the government and domestic
investors, but as soon as they make that decision we will be there to agree our
co-operation”.
The airline
boss says that airlines in which Ethiopian does take a strategic
stake do not operate solely as feeders for the carrier’s hub at Addis Ababa. He
gives the example of ASKY’s hub at Lome in Togo, which he describes as a
“traffic collection point from all over West Africa and Central Africa east to
Asia and the Middle East and also crossing the Atlantic to New York”.
“It is a major
hub now, not only feeding the main hub in Addis [Ababa] but also its an out leg
to connect West Africa and Brazil and later on Europe,” he adds.
source:
www.nazret.com
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