Ethiopian is also looking to set up an aircraft MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) facility in India
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African carrier Ethiopian Airlines is keen to tie-up commercially with budget carriers IndiGo and SpiceJet. Incidentally, it has a codeshare pact with the Tata-owned Air India. According to reports, Ethiopian is also looking to set up an aircraft MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) facility in India.
The carrier currently operates its non-stop flight services to Delhi, Mumbai (it recently completed 50 years of its operations in Mumbai) and Bengaluru. The airline also has freighter services to Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru. Ethiopian Airlines started flying to Delhi from capital city Addis Ababa from 1966 and later started services to Mumbai as well from December 1971. It added Bengaluru to its network from late 2019.
Also around 90 per cent of the passengers traveling from India were transit passengers going further to airlines’ online African points, like Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria, Zambia, Uganda, Tanzania, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Botswana, amongst others, she said
Tigist Eshetu, Ethiopian Airlines’ Regional Director for India Subcontinent, was quoted saying to PTI that “India is one of our strategic markets in Asia and we have been providing critical air connectivity between India and Africa for decades. It is one of the critical destinations for the passenger and cargo services for Ethiopian Airlines”.
Eshetu said that the airline would start services from Chennai from July 2 with three weekly flights, which will be served with either a Boeing 737 Max or Boeing 787 Dreamliner depending upon the market demand. She also said that Ethiopian was also looking at Ahmedabad and Hyderabad as future destinations.
Eshetu also said that Ethiopian had a “code share agreement with Air India and SPA (Special Prorate Agreement) with Vistara. We are assessing and in communication with Spicejet and IndiGo for commercial tie-ups”.
She went on to say that “It is our desire to continue to serve India with enhanced capacities.” However, Covid-induced restrictions have hampered the moderate amount of frequency the airline used to operate, she said, adding, “We are now operating much lower but are optimistic that services will restore to pre-Covid levels (soon).”
A major chunk (39 per cent) of the passenger traffic on the airlines’ Mumbai route comes from the labour travel followed by business and corporate travel, which accounts for 30 per cent. As much as 55 per cent of the passenger traffic on Delhi route comes from business, leisure and VFR (visiting friends and relatives) segment. Also around 90 per cent of the passengers traveling from India were transit passengers going further to airlines’ online African points, like Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria, Zambia, Uganda, Tanzania, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Botswana, amongst others, she said.
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