The rise of Ethiopian Airlines: Ethiopian Airlines is rapidly expanding and step by step entering the world’s elite aviation club. Currently, they are launching new routes and owns one of the newest fleets among airlines. What else have they prepared for us?
Ethiopian Airlines at the moment is unquestionably the leading airline in Africa and can compete with many European airlines as an equal rival. During the last ten years, they increased the number of passengers four times and it was expected to hit 10 million by 2018. The only setback that the airline has suffered was the fatal accident involving its 737 Max 8 plane. On 10 March 2019, the Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft which operated the flight crashed near the town of Bishoftu six minutes after takeoff, killing all 157 people aboard. The cause was attributed to a faulty component in the manufacturing of the plane by Boeing.
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Nonetheless, Ethiopian Airlines has one of the newest fleets in the world. It involves Airbus SE and Boeing Co. aircraft. For the first time in the history, an African airline can compete with the Middle East and European airlines in intercontinental skies.
Furthermore, Ethiopian Airlines has a new target – American market. In 2018, they revealed plans to open a new route to Chicago. This was their fifth destination in the US. The airline is not the first trying to connect North America and Africa continents, but pretty much the first one to do it successfully.
Virgin Atlantic launched Virgin Nigeria Airways in 2005, but had to shut down only 4 years later. In 2016, United Airlines also stopped their flights between Houston and Lagos, leaving Delta Airlines as the only American airline operating flights to West and Southern Africa.
One more reason this state-owned airline is successful is that it is not run according to the usual model used by the governments. It is run as a private business. Zemedeneh Negatu, a CEO of US-based aviation consulting firm says.
Many other African airlines are run like the personal fiefdom of the government of the time. In the 2016 fiscal year, Ethiopian Airlines reached a revenue of almost $2 billion and this allowed them to overtake their competitors such as Royal Air Maroc and Egypt Air.
Today it is impossible to tell what the odds for Ethiopian Airlines will be in reaching the success status of other major state-owned airlines such as Emirates, Qatar Airways or Turkish Airlines. But for sure they are on the right track. For example, within the next 30 years, Addis Ababa is expected to grow the number of consumers twice and hit 2.5 billion.
Additionally, the rise of Ethiopian Airlines is fostered by a lot of support from China. The Chinese are financing major projects in the airport and initiating upgrades. It is also expected that Ethiopian Airlines will soon start flying to Shenzhen, China. This will be the fifth Chinese city served there by the airline.