For years, Ethiopia has been rising in terms of air traffic ever higher. Ethiopian Airlines carries approximately eleven million passengers annually – the fleet is the largest on the African continent. The Ethiopian capital’s airport, Addis Ababa, is becoming increasingly important and is considered the hub for connections across the continent. But there is resistance – the competition does not want to see any longer.
The flight operations are full of challenges: The airlines on the African continent are struggling with a lot of bureaucracy, lack of market opening and high competitive pressure, especially from the big players from the Gulf States and Turkey (Emirates, Turkish Airlines). As a result, the long-haul market is concentrated on a few airlines, including Ethiopian.
The rise of the Ethiopian state enterprise is very remarkable: Within the last years the airline has grown enormously. The group recently took unprecedented steps to cement its power. Although the market within the continent is comparatively small – only two percent of global air traffic takes place in the countries concerned.
Addis Ababa overtakes Dubai
All the more impressive is the success of the Ethiopians. This is reflected not least in the expansion of Bole International Airport – the capital’s airport in Addis Ababa. The airport has become the premier hub for transfers to major cities in Africa, and last year even managed to overtake Dubai Airport, one of the busiest airports in the world. In 2013 and 2017, completed transfers increased by a whopping 85 percent, compared to 31 percent in Dubai over the same period.
The rise of Ethiopian is part of the 15-year strategic plan launched in 2010 to retrieve routes to and from Africa by Turkish Airlines or Emirates. Ethiopian flies to Dubai, Istanbul is on the plan. There are currently 101 international routes – with the exception of Australia, all continents are served widely. For a long time there is a Vienna flight – is used a Boeing 787 (Dreamliner). Ethiopian also serves 57 destinations within Africa.
Common cause against Ethiopian
On the continent, the Ethiopians want to grow, this buys the airline after the series holdings in other African competitors. This overcomes legal obstacles – the individual markets are still nationally organized and isolated from each other. There are first steps towards liberalization: Last year, 23 states reaffirmed their intention to implement an open skies agreement (ie the mutual liberalization of the respective civil aviation sector).
The Ethiopian expansion puts pressure on those lines that do not want to be part of the Ethiopian plan to create a pan-African airline to compete with the Gulf airlines. The plan: In order to become more profitable, four African competitors want to build each other – so plan Air Mauritius, South African Airways, RwandAir and Kenya Airways on a new alliance. Together, the four airlines want to benefit from synergies in their routes.
Mauritius as a hub
Exact details of the collaboration are expected to be announced over the next few weeks, as reported by The EastAfrican. Also conceivable are cooperations in terms of maintenance, training or purchasing. In particular via codeshare, the new alliance wants to take a first step, so as not to lose the connection to Ethiopian. Air Mauritius and Mauritius should play a special role. As the only airline she is not permanently in red.
The local capital airport in Port Louis is due to the closer geographical location to Asia and Oceania to a hub for flights from these regions. Visitors from several parts of the world will also find it easier to reach the tourist hotspot Mauritius – for example, tourists from the USA who travel with Kenya Airways from New York via Nairobi.
Sale of shares planned
It is questionable whether Ethiopian can harm the planned alliance. In any case, the Ethiopian government has plans with the state airline. For example, as part of efforts to reform the country, new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed plans to sell Ethiopian to domestic and foreign investors sooner or later. Until then, the airline wants to grow in Africa – for example via new hubs in Togo, Malawi and Chad.
