In a clear sign of growing bilateral connect between India and Ethiopia, Ethiopian Airline has announced doubling the number of flights from Delhi. The announcement was made in a press conference recently at the Ethiopian Cultural centre in the capital.
Commenting at the development at the event of formal announcement, Regional Director India Sub Continent, Tadesse Tilahun said “Ethiopian Airlines is already operating double daily flights out of Mumbai. Now we have Delhi joining the bandwagon. With double daily flights out of Delhi from March 27, 2016, the capacity ex India has increased by 100 percent. Way to go for the airline.” He further shared that if any airline was consistently achieving over 75 percent load factor from a destination, it was rejecting passengers and losing out on revenue, so “doubling of our flights from the capital is a testimony of increasing footfalls from India into Addis Ababa. We wanted to ensure that we do not lose out on revenues and business from India which is growing at an encouraging pace,” he explained.
Highlighting thirty years of operations from Delhi, Mahlet Kebede, Manager Traffic and Sales Manager New Delhi said “Any passenger flying Ethiopian on this route is indirectly taking part in a history of 30 years of service. These flights have helped create business possibilities and convenient connectivity.” She added, “If you look into the history of Ethiopian flights to New Delhi, you are leafing through decades of networking, close businesses relationships and shared success stories.”
With the launch of more flights, besides connecting South America, this development is also facilitating one of the fastest connections to other African nations, including destinations like Israel. As the number of flights increase, it also bodes well for some African countries that do not, yet, have direct air-connectivity to India.
It is, also, going to boost Latin American connection with India, providing the fastest route to South America via Addis Ababa. Instead of going to London, Rome or Frankfurt to head for Latin American shores, one can board an Ethiopian Airline flight and opt for the fastest connection to cities like Brasilia and Sao Paulo.
However, an area of concern which was highlighted during the press interaction was the use of Boeing 737-800, and it was enquired whether the airline was going to introduce a more modern fleet. Tadesse Tilahun responded by noting that “there is no dearth of fleet. We have some of the best air-crafts in operation and we are keen on introducing latest air-crafts. The only glitch, in an otherwise lucrative prospect, is the terms of bilateral agreement which forces us to ground our aircraft for 18 hours before turning back. It is simply not viable for us to ground Boeing 777 or other such air-crafts for such a long period of time.” He expressed hope that once the terms of bilateral agreement was re-looked at, Ethiopian Airline would introduce more modern air-crafts.
