Ethiopian rides high on success

Ethiopian Airlines announced a successful fiscal year 2017-18. Gearing towards its 2025 vision, the airline opened eight new international destinations while the number of passengers carried grew by 21 per cent topping the 10 million mark for the first time in the airline’s history.

TT Bureau

It was quite an interesting year for the largest African airline group when it announced its performance over the past fiscal year. In line with its 15-year strategic roadmap, Vision 2025, the airline registered success in financial, commercial, operational and customer service areas.

During the fiscal year, the airline was given for the first time in its history a four-star rating by Skytrax, a leading customer service rating organisation in the airline industry, putting it on par with other global airlines. Tewolde GebreMariam, Group CEO, Ethiopian Airlines said, “It was an exceptional year for Ethiopian with record performance in financial, operational, commercial and customer service areas. This historical performance is due to the commitment, hard work and competence of my 16,000 colleagues with each one of them at all echelons of the company playing a critical role in this success. This performance is all the more exceptional given the very tough operating and competitive environment in Africa, where jet fuel price, our main cost driver, has soared during the year and is on average 30 per cent more expensive in Africa, our home market, than in the rest of the world. This remarkable result was also achieved in the backdrop of aggressive foreign carriers’ penetration into the African market with the African airline industry collectively forecasted to lose money. The historical performance attests the soundness of our fast and sustainable growth plan, Vision 2025. During the next 2018-19 fiscal year, we aim to further grow our network, introduce record number of modern fleet and greatly enhance the on-ground customer service.”

During the 2017-18 fiscal year, some of the key highlights were:

• Ethiopian introduced additional 14 new aircraft, more than one aircraft per month
• The airline opened eight new international destinations, namely Geneva (Switzerland), Chicago (USA), Bahrain, Kaduna (Nigeria), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Kisangani and Mbuji-Mayi (Democratic Republic of Congo) and Nosy-Be (Madagascar)
• The number of passengers carried grew by 21 per cent topping the 10 million mark for the first time in the airline’s history and reaching 10.6 million passengers
• Freight carried grew by 18 per cent from previous fiscal year to attain 400,339 tons
• Operating revenue grew by 43 per cent from previous fiscal year to culminate at 89.1 billion Ethiopian birr (ETB)
• Net profit stood at 6.8 billion ETB