Ethiopian Airlines open to partner gov’t for new national airline

Ethiopian Airlines says it is prepared to partner government in establishing a new sustainable national airline, eleven years after the collapse of Ghana Airways.

Girma Shiferaw, Vice President, Corporate Alliance of the Addis Ababa-based airline said: “We have heard that Ghana wants to establish an airline. Normally we prefer to be partners and to build the airline together not to own it. We like the concept of being a partner, not an owner. If the opportunity comes, we are ready to partner. As a principle, our door is opened for collaboration with any African airline. It doesn’t matter if it is in East, West or North of the continent.”

Government is seeking an experienced airline operator as a strategic partner to establish a new national airline for the country, after the collapse of Ghana Airways and its successor the Ghana International Airlines (GIA) for different reasons.

The Ministry of Transport, in an Expression of Interest (EOI) published in local newspapers, said: “The feasibility studies [for the establishment of a new national carrier] also demonstrated the new national airline will require partnership with an experienced strategic airline partner that has a global distribution network to adequately take advantage of opportunities in the market place”.

The partner, the EOI notes, ought to have good financial strength; technical strength in areas of IT systems and flight operations; maintenance yield and capacity management; good distribution network; and be a member of a global alliance.

“It depends on the way you see or interpret partnership because we all have our areas of specialty. In partnership, we can always find a way that each partner will have a role to play in the market. Africa is very big and I don’t think the continent’s business opportunity is full and there is no room for growth and participation. We need more and more active participants in the airline business,” Mr. Shiferaw said.

After the collapse of Ghana Airways, the former national flag-carrier, government invited private participation in the establishment of a new national airline.

In 2004 Ghana International Airlines was established, with 70 percent shares held by GoG and 30 percent held by a US consortium GIA-USA. Faced by a myriad of issues, the airline went down in 2010.

The Transport Ministry has said government is not going to commit funds but will only seek a carried interest in the proposed new airline. Some experts have however questioned this approach.

Other aviation analysts believe that the new airline should rather look inward and dominate the continent before venturing to other long-haul routes.

The structure of the proposed new flag-carrier is currently imprecise. Interested parties, however, have submitted bids to the supervisory ministry.