This African Airline Wants to Be the New Emirates
Aided by China, Ethiopian Airlines is growing by leaps and bounds, challenging the regional dominance of foreign carriers and now expanding into the U.S.
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia—A new global air hub is developing in an unlikely place: this highland capital in East Africa.
Over the past decade, state-owned Ethiopian Airlines has become Africa’s largest carrier and bought stakes in continental rivals. Its passenger count, which has quadrupled over that time, is expected to surpass 10 million by the end of 2018. The airline also has built one of the world’s youngest fleets, including dozens of Airbus SE and Boeing Co. planes.
For the first time, an African airline is challenging European and Middle Eastern airlines’ commercial dominance of the continent’s skies. And now Ethiopian Airlines is pushing into North America, adding a fifth destination—Chicago—this year.
Over the past decade, state-owned Ethiopian Airlines has become Africa’s largest carrier and bought stakes in continental rivals. Its passenger count, which has quadrupled over that time, is expected to surpass 10 million by the end of 2018. The airline also has built one of the world’s youngest fleets, including dozens of Airbus SE and Boeing Co. planes.
For the first time, an African airline is challenging European and Middle Eastern airlines’ commercial dominance of the continent’s skies. And now Ethiopian Airlines is pushing into North America, adding a fifth destination—Chicago—this year.
Ethiopia is one of just seven African countries cleared for
direct flights to the U.S.—a connection that harks back to the Ethiopian
carrier’s founding in 1945 as a joint venture with the now-defunct
Trans World Airlines.
“Ethiopia is becoming a critical hub for intercontinental traffic for people traveling from the U.S.,” Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said during a visit to the country on Thursday. “I think this is going to promote a great deal of interest in Africa and in Ethiopia.”
“We need to educate the American public,” Tewolde Gebremariam, Ethiopian Airlines’ chief executive, said in an interview. The airline this year launched its first digital marketing strategy, targeting potential fliers via Facebook , Google, Twitter and travel websites like Expedia .
Mairéad O’Grady, a 30-year-old educator from Washington, D.C., who flew on Ethiopian recently to Uganda, is one of the new converts. “It was a combination of the cost and the flight time; it seemed like the best of both options,” she said.
This year, Ethiopian will unveil two testaments to its ambition: a $363 million overhaul of its shabby and overcrowded terminal at Bole International Airport that will more than double annual passenger capacity to 22 million—roughly matching Washington D.C.’s Dulles International Airport’s annual traffic—and a $65 million airport hotel. Meantime, inside a nearby $100 million aviation academy, recruits practice evacuations in a purpose-built swimming pool, while executives plot the company’s expansion.
“Even though [Ethiopian] is 100% state-owned, it’s run like a business: The board runs it as if it’s British Airways or United Airlines,” said Zemedeneh Negatu, chairman of Fairfax Africa Fund LLC, a U.S.-based investment firm that consults on aviation. “Many other African airlines are run like the personal fiefdom of the government of the time.”
“Ethiopia is becoming a critical hub for intercontinental traffic for people traveling from the U.S.,” Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said during a visit to the country on Thursday. “I think this is going to promote a great deal of interest in Africa and in Ethiopia.”
“We need to educate the American public,” Tewolde Gebremariam, Ethiopian Airlines’ chief executive, said in an interview. The airline this year launched its first digital marketing strategy, targeting potential fliers via Facebook , Google, Twitter and travel websites like Expedia .
Mairéad O’Grady, a 30-year-old educator from Washington, D.C., who flew on Ethiopian recently to Uganda, is one of the new converts. “It was a combination of the cost and the flight time; it seemed like the best of both options,” she said.
This year, Ethiopian will unveil two testaments to its ambition: a $363 million overhaul of its shabby and overcrowded terminal at Bole International Airport that will more than double annual passenger capacity to 22 million—roughly matching Washington D.C.’s Dulles International Airport’s annual traffic—and a $65 million airport hotel. Meantime, inside a nearby $100 million aviation academy, recruits practice evacuations in a purpose-built swimming pool, while executives plot the company’s expansion.
“Even though [Ethiopian] is 100% state-owned, it’s run like a business: The board runs it as if it’s British Airways or United Airlines,” said Zemedeneh Negatu, chairman of Fairfax Africa Fund LLC, a U.S.-based investment firm that consults on aviation. “Many other African airlines are run like the personal fiefdom of the government of the time.”