Linking Africa and India - new media

AVIATIONBooming Indian Economywill boost Tourist flowinto Africa - Ayenew AlemnehWith the Indian economy moving along the path of enviablegrowth, Ayenew Alemneh, the outgoing Regional Director,India & S.E Asia, tells Satya Swaroop in an interview aboutthe growth prospects of Ethiopian Airlines, which couldtrigger great enthusiasm among Indian to visit Africa.What are the initiatives the Ethiopian Airlines hastaken recently?We have embarked on fresh initiatives to expand ourservices. We have now changed our logo. And our mottois now linking Africa to the world. This is our majorinitiative. In fact it's a reality. We have been operating forthe last 58 years and we have been serving a large portionof Africa…expanding network into Africa, like Ethiopia.We operate from East, West, and North to South of Africa.We have a large extensive network in Africa and now thesecond initiative is that we have embarkedupon upgrading our aircraft. We are buying12 new aircraft. We have already receivedthree of our aircrafts and are going toreceive the rest in the next few months.This will help us increase our services.We have a very extensive wellsynchronizednetworking from Beijing inthe East to Washington in the West. Weare also connecting from Stockholm inSweden in the north to Johannesburg inthe south. So we have several extensivenetworks vis-à-vis capacity. Along withthis, we have opened a new destinationin Sweden and added one moredestination in China. We have beenoperating to China for a very long time.In fact we are one of the first Asians orAfricans to start operations in China.We started it in 1974. We havedestinations in Beijing, Hong Kongand now in Canton. We have restartedour operationsinto Cameroonthat we hadsuspendedearlier. Sogradually weare expandingby taking thehelp of newaircraft. So anew state-of-the-art airportterminal has been completed in Addis Ababa and its nowin operation. It is very modern and it makes Addis Ababaa very beautiful hub for our destination. It will give ourpassengers better services in transit. Another importantdevelopment has been the construction of a very modernand expensive cargo terminal in Addis Ababa. It will beable to take care of the cargo business that we have. InIndia we have a very big cargo business. Many Africancountries have business relations with India and thatgives us tremendous opportunities. The situation now isthat African countries prefer to do business with India.The technology that Africans need is available in India.So this will provide us with better opportunities.How many flights are there from India to Addis?Actually we have four passenger flights a week intoMumbai and three cargo flights. We have two flights intoDelhi. The government of India and the government ofEthiopia have had bilateral discussions on this and theyhave agreed on providing more opportunities toEthiopian airlines to operate. So we are studyingopportunities that we can exploit and expand. There aremany destinations within the country from where we canoperate.So how do you feel has been the policy of thegovernment of India?Yes, it has been very helpful. History proves that we havealways shared very good relations with the governmentof India. So it's not a new thing. The Prime Minister ofEthiopia visited this country some years back andmeetings were held which helped the opportunity forexpansion.So how has been traffic from India to Ethiopia? Has itbeen only Ethiopia or Africa?See, we are targeting not just Ethiopia but Africa. We arean African carrier. There has been a very significantimprovement in the movement of people and cargobetween India and Africa. The potential is great. The onlything is that we have to explore the potential. It is a goodmarket and it is up to us to exploit the situation. We alsohave the support from the government. The traffic hasbeen on the increase and the future seems to be bright.INDO-AFRICAN BUSINESS 34August-October 2004