ETHIOPIA: Ethiopian Added New Gateway And Increased Frequencies To The US

Ethiopia’s flag carrier Ethiopian might have thrown a killer punch to competitors Kenya Airways and Rwandair by shuffling its services to the United States.

The carrier has added a new gateway to the US, upped frequencies and made changes to other gateways starting with the 2019 summer season.

The airlines says it is optimising its US network to give its clients better connectivity between the US Africa through shorter routes.

Addis has not secured US FAA Category One Certification and as such all flights inbound to the US go through an intermediate airport that is certified.

As a result of the changes, three new flights will be added to the existing daily service to Washington to bring the weekly number of departures to ten.

But unlike the existing services which route through Rome, the additional three flights will go through Abidjan. The Addis Ababa-Abidjan-Washington flights will depart Addis in the morning and arrive in DC in the evening.

The service to Chicago will grow from the current three weekly flights to five; while four of the planned new daily service to New York will go via Lomé to Newark and three via Abidjan to John F. Kennedy.

Ethiopian is also closing the service Los Angeles and replacing with a new service to Houston, Texas that will also operate three times a week via West Africa.

It is believed Ethiopian is trying to tap into the significant African community in Houston as well as the oil gas companies that are likely to be attracted to the only air service between Texas and Africa.

The U.S. is among our most important markets owing to the presence of a large African community and growing business and tourism ties with Africa says Ethiopian CEO Tewolde Gebremariam.

Our new route structure with additional frequencies to multiple gateways and the opening of new route to Houston are aimed at responding to the market demand and availing best possible connectivity to over 60 African destinations, said Ethiopian CEO Tewolde Gebremariam.

The restructuring of the US service is also likely to complicate business for Kenya Airways which has a direct tri-weekly service to JFK and Rwandair which also plans to mount flights to New York this year.

With the widest route network in Africa and multiple entry points in the US, Ethiopian is diluting the hub effect of its African competitors.

Ethiopian is now the largest operator out of Africa with more than 119 destinations. Asmara, Manchester, Moscow and Mogadishu are some of its recent additions.


Tourism Observer

IVORY COAST: Air Côte d’Ivoire And Ethiopian Airlines Announce Codeshare Agreement

Ethiopian Airlines and Air Côte d’Ivoire, the national flag carrier of Côte d’Ivoire, have entered into a codeshare agreement effective May 2018.

Under the new codeshare partnership, passengers originating from West African countries, especially from Lagos, Bamako, Cotonou, Accra and Lomé will board Air Côte d’Ivoire flights and enjoy a fast and seamless connection to Newark on-board Ethiopian direct service to Newark via Abidjan.

Tewolde GebreMariam, Group CEO Ethiopian Airlines, said: We are very happy to partner with Air Côte d’Ivoire with a view to connecting passengers from West Africa to our new flights to Newark via Abidjan. I wish to thank the

“We are very happy to partner with Air Côte d’Ivoire with a view to connecting passengers from West Africa to our new flights to Newark via Abidjan.

Ethiopian new Abidjan flights to Newark will be operated in complementarity to our existing Newark service via Lomé, which is being availed together with our strategic partner, ASKY Airlines.

Such partnerships among sisterly African airlines are crucial for African countries to fill the connectivity vacuum in the continent and for African carriers to regain their market share in their home market.

René Decurey, CEO of Air Côte d’Ivoire said:

A few months ago, Abidjan airport was certified to carry out direct links with the USA. It is now time to launch these direct flights and Air Côte d’Ivoire is very happy to carry out the operation in codeshare with Ethiopian Airlines.

This agreement will allow Air Côte d’Ivoire to sell the flights as well. We will, therefore, be able to offer passengers on our network, flights to the USA via Abidjan with a single Air Côte d’Ivoire ticket.

We are convinced that this partnership is the beginning of a long collaboration that will fully benefit our two Airlines and African passengers who used to pass through Europe to travel to the USA.

Ethiopian currently flies to 58 cities in Africa and more than 112 destinations globally.


Tourism Observer

West African Hotel Investment Forum

The number of planned hotel rooms in Africa has soared to 64,000 in 365 hotels, up almost 30% on the previous year, according to new figures from the annual W Hospitality Group Hotel Chain Development Pipeline Survey.

The increase is largely down to strong growth in sub-Saharan Africa, which is up 42.1% on 2015 and is significantly outstripping North Africa which achieved only a modest 7.5% pipeline increase this year.

A major shake-up in the rankings by country saw Angola, never before listed among the top 10, push Egypt out of second place, due to a major deal there signed by AccorHotels.

The W Hospitality Group survey is published ahead of the Africa Hotel Investment Forum (AHIF), and will be discussed in detail at the conference by Trevor Ward, W Hospitality Group managing director.

AHIF attracts all the major international hotel investors in Africa and is being held for the first time in Lomé, Togo on 21-22 June. A second AHIF will also take place in Kigali.

Ahead of the AHIF in Kigali / Rwanda later in the year is the West African Hotel Investment Forum taking place in Lome, Togo from the 21st to the 22nd June. Don't miss it!