Ethiopian Airlines Revises its 15-Year Strategic Plan

Ethiopian Airlines has announced plans to revise its ambitious 15-year strategic plan from 2010, which called for the airline to become the largest carrier in Africa by 2025.

While the airline’s initial plan outlined a strategy to more than double its fleet to 120 aircraft within the review period, Ethiopian Airlines has already fast approached a fleet of 100 planes at the half-way mark. The revised plan now sets a target for the airline to deploy 150 aircraft by 2025.

Founded in 1945 as a joint venture with the now defunct American carrier TWA (Trans World Airlines), Ethiopian Airlines took to the skies with its inaugural flight to neighboring Cairo.

Over the past seven decades, the carrier has rapidly expanded to become a juggernaut over the skies of Africa. Already the continent’s largest in terms of revenue as well as the most profitable, the state owned carrier currently operates a fleet of 98 aircrafts.

The updated strategy outlines upwards of 60 aircraft currently on order, with Airbus and Boeing offerings leading the count.

Half the aircraft orders are for Medium Range passenger planes, which would seek to secure its lead well ahead of its competitors in the regional market such as Kenya Airways and South African Airways; both of which have been plagued with financial troubles of late.

With the January 2018 announcement by the 23 signatory African nations to support the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) initiative, intra-African travel is set to improve markedly and bring about lower costs for travelers.

As the leading proponent of the SAATM initiative, Ethiopian Airlines has furthered its plans to become the dominant network for passenger and cargo flights on the continent.

Through a strategic blend of partnerships, investments and acquisitions, Ethiopian Airlines has revived defunct regional private and national carriers throughout Africa, in a bid to establish multiple hubs across the continent.

The carrier has also rapidly grown its global network, announcing 10 new destinations within the past six months.

“We have expanded more than we planned,” commented Tewolde GebreMariam, CEO of Ethiopian Airlines, in the announcement regarding the revised strategy, with passenger numbers tripling between 2008 and 2017.

“With our continued fleet modernization endeavor, we shall soon mark a notable milestone of reaching a 100 fleet capability, thus classifying Ethiopian as the first African carrier to own and operate the youngest and most modern fleet in the continent,” said GebreMariam.

The airline has also made noteworthy strides in passenger services, with TripAdvisor awarding Ethiopian Airlines as the “The Best Business Class in Africa and Indian Ocean.”

Posted by on May 18 2018. Filed under Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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