Ethiopian Airlines CEO: Knowing Our African Customers Has Been a Key Advantage
Skift Take
While many African carriers are struggling to stay afloat, let alone turn a profit, Ethiopian Airlines is firmly in the black and planning aggressive expansion. The magic formula? The right aircraft and routes, and a government that lets the experts get on with it.
Editor's Note: Skift launched a new series, Gateway, to broaden our news coverage geographically with first-hand, original stories from correspondents embedded in cities around the world.
We are featuring regular reports several times per week from Beijing, Singapore and Cape Town, and look for us to add other cities soon. Gateway Cape Town, for example, signifies that the reporter is writing from that city although his coverage of the business of travel will meander to other locales in the region. Read about the series here, and check out all the stories in the series here.
Ethiopian Airlines has come a long way since April 1946, when its first scheduled services flew second-hand Douglas C-47 Skytrains to the likes of Aden, Djibouti and Jimma.
Fast-forward 70 years and the carrier has grown into the leading airline in Africa, its fleet of 85 aircraft – average age: five years – serving 90 destinations on five continents from its hub in Addis Ababa.
“Although 2016 has been [a] very challenging year for the industry, all in all it was a very good year for Ethiopian Airlines,” says Tewolde GebreMariam, group CEO and a 30-year veteran of the company.
And GebreMariam is being modest. In the most
