The Sunday Mail
ETHIOPIAN Airlines Enterprise, East Africa’s biggest carrier by revenue, is considering proposals to help set up national airlines in Nigeria and three other countries to expand its operations on the continent.
The state-owned company, which has stakes in Malawian Airlines and ASKY Airlines of Togo, has been approached by the Nigerian government about a new carrier for Africa’s biggest economy, chief executive officer Tewolde Gebremariam said in an interview on March 20. Ethiopian Airlines is also in discussions with the administrations of Uganda, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, he said, without giving further detail.
“We have been invited to participate and we’ve given a strong expression of interest,” he told Bloomberg TV on a private plane from Dublin to London, where he was promoting a route to Los Angeles via the Irish capital. “As soon as the process allows then we will submit a business proposal.”
Ethiopian Airlines is competing with South African Airways and Kenya Airways Ltd. as they expand routes outside their home markets to tap greater demand for travel within the continent.
SAA, also state-controlled, is seeking a hub in West Africa that would also be a stop-off point on the way to the US London-based FastJet Plc is trying to add routes as part of an effort to become the first pan-African discount airline.
Ethiopian Airlines plans to quadruple annual revenue to US$10 billion over the next decade and increase the number of international destinations to 120 from 84, Gebremariam said.
The airline also hopes to expand its fleet to 140 planes from 80 by that year.
South African Airways had revenue of R30,3 billion (US$2,6 billion) in the year ending March 2014, while Kenya Airways Ltd, the continent’s third-biggest carrier, generated KSh106 billion (US$1,2 billion) over the same period.
Nigeria is seeking private investors to help set up a flag-carrier as it expands airport infrastructure, Aviation Minister Osita Chidioka said last year.
State-owned Nigeria Airways stopped operations in 2003, and the country’s biggest airline is now closely held Lagos-based Arik Air Ltd.
Uganda is also in talks to revive state airline Uganda Airlines more than a decade after its liquidation, Voice of America reported in October. —Bloomberg.
