Ethiopian Airlines aspires to expand its presence in cargo service

Addis Ababa, June 1, 2020 (FBC) – Ethiopian Airlines stated that it remains to be seen in an African sky despite circumstances as it is working to be the architect of the sector’s reconstruction.

Talking to the Africa Report, Chief Executive Officer of the airlines, Tewolde Gebremariam said there were no layoffs in its human resource sector for it has been able to pay salaries because of our strong financial equilibrium.

Explaining the strategy of the airlines to diversify its activities into cargo, Tewolde said it is taking advantages out of maintenance and hotel service to get through this period of coronavirus crisis.

“As soon as the passenger transport business came to a halt, we were able to turn to cargo and maintenance.” Tewolde told Africa Report.

Tewolde added that Ethiopian has doubled its cargo capacity as it converted 20 passenger aircrafts for cargo services.

The converts will return to their original configuration as passenger aircrafts after the crisis is over, Tewolde said.

The CEO also underlined that the airlines will continue to expand its presence across the world via cargo services adding it helps generate cash until the passenger business resumes.

Ethiopian has embarked on a very strict cost-cutting programme in order to manage the crisis with its own resources, the CEO added.

Responding to questions raised by Africa Report concerning Ethiopian’s closeness with Alibaba, Tewolde said China and Ethiopia have a very good economic and diplomatic relations, and the airlines has been flying to the East Asian country since 1973 when it was not as open as it is now.

Join our telegram channel https://t.me/fbcenglish to get latest news updates