AFRICA’S LEADING airline group, Ethiopian Airlines has secured top prize at the 2018 World Airline Awards being named the ‘Best Airline in Africa’ for the second time.

The award for ‘Best Airline in Africa’ was presented to Ethiopian Airlines at an award ceremony held at London’s iconic Langham Hotel yesterday (Jul 17) in recognition of its continued rapid growth, increased profitability and its outstanding contribution to aviation development in Africa.

Group CEO Ethiopian Airlines, Mr Tewolde GebreMariam said: “We are thrilled to win the ‘African Airline of the Year Award for the second time. It is a testimony to the continued hard work of our committed team and the successful implementation of our airlines fast, profitable and sustainable growth plan, Vision 2025. We are highly honoured to receive this recognition from SKYTRAX.”

Ethiopian Airlines currently serves 55 African cities, the most extensive network in the continent, connecting them with each other and to more than 110 international destinations in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the Americas using state of the art aircraft offering superior on-board aircraft such as the B787s and A350s.

Commenting on the Awards, Edward Plaisted, CEO of Skytrax said: “Passengers have voted Ethiopian Airlines Africa’s premier carrier for a second successive year, and this is a simply fabulous achievement for the airline management and frontline staff.”

Ethiopia is open to selling off a host of state-owned firms, partially or entirely, as part of major economic reforms designed to “unleash the potential of the private sector”, its information minister said on 18 July.

Ahmed Shide said the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, which has announced a slew of shake-ups since coming into office in April, would retain majority holdings in the state-run airline, logistics, telecoms and energy companies.

Everything else, from hotels and sugar farming to cement production, could be up for sale, with the exception of the tightly controlled financial services sector, whose fate was yet to be decided, he said.

“The main objective of this is to encourage private sector development in the country,” Ahmed said, making clear that the nation was turning the page on decades of reliance on the state to drive economic growth.

“The role of the private sector is very fundamental. We did a lot of state development projects. Now we need to unleash the potential of the private sector,” he said.

Ahmed did not give a time-frame for the privatisations but said the government was tendering for advice from global business consultancies including McKinsey and PwC.

“The detailed planning is not complete but precautions will be made not to have mistakes,” he said. “So we will do it with caution,” he said.

Having come to power less than four months ago, Abiy has turned the nation on its head with his bold plans to reshape politics and the economy.

Although it has been one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies, Ethiopia’s export sector, mainly garment manufacturing and farming, has struggled to take off. The economy is thus not generating enough dollars to pay for imports.

Kenya’s Safaricom is poised to roll out its popular M-Pesa mobile money service, sources say, raising hopes the technology that has changed the face of Kenya’s economy since 2007 will do the same in Ethiopia.

“It’s really going to alleviate their liquidity constraints,” said Jacques Nel of Cape Town-based consultancy NKC African Economics. “People will be able to start using this electronic currency and won’t have to waste time looking for birr or foreign currency,” Nel said.

 

Ethiopia will also reopen its embassy in neighbouring Eritrea at a yet to be announced date, the country’s Minister for Government Communications Affairs, Ahmed Shide, said in a tweet.

The Minister cited an official of the foreign affairs ministry as stating that aside from the reopening of the embassy in Asmara, Ethiopia was also working to fully implement the terms of a recently signed peace deal between the two nations.

Eritrea opened its embassy in Addis Ababa on Monday 16 July after the facility was closed down two decades ago when the two countries engaged in a border war that killed thousands.

The reopening was witnessed by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Eritrean president Isaias Afwerki – it was part of Afwerki’s engagement on the last day of his historic visit / his return to Addis Ababa after two decades.

Abiy made a historic visit to Asmara with the two leaders signing the five-point agreement chiefly among them, ending the state of war that existed between them.

Afwerki’s trip was to reciprocate the gesture of Abiy to Asmara. Both leaders were very well received on their respective trips.

Already, Ethiopia’s national carrier is to start daily flights to Asmara. The airline is also set to take a 20% stake in Eritrean Airlines according to reports.

The first commercial flight to Eritrea in two decades departed this morning from Addis Ababa, barely a week after the two nations ended their conflict following a whirlwind peace process.

Ethiopian Airlines said that flight ET0312 to Asmara had departed Bole International Airport, after a ceremony inaugurating the historic flight.

“This day marks a unique event in the history of Ethiopia and Eritrea,” the airline’s chief executive Tewolde GebreMariam said at the ceremony.

Overwhelming demand saw the African aviation giant operate two flights within 15 minutes of each other.

“The fact that we are taking two flights at a time shows the eagerness of the people,” said GebreMariam.

Champagne was served to passengers in all classes, who were also given roses shortly before take-off.

Once a province of Ethiopia, Eritrea seceded in 1993 after a long independence struggle. A row over the demarcation of the shared border triggered a brutal 1998-2000 conflict which left 80,000 people dead before evolving into a bitter cold war.

In a surprise move, Ethiopia’s new reformist Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed paid a historic visit to Eritrea, during which he and President Isaias Afwerki declared an official end to the war. Afwerki reciprocated with a state visit to Ethiopia just days later.

Eritrea reopened its embassy in Ethiopia today in further evidence of a rapid thaw between two countries that a week ago ended two decades of military stalemate over a border war in which tens of thousands died.

Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Eritrea’s President Isaias Afwerki re-opened the embassy in the capital Addis Ababa in a brief ceremony. One week ago the leaders declared their “state of war” over and President Isaias spent the weekend in Ethiopia.

The rapprochement could help Ethiopia, a landlocked country of 100 million people with the largest economy in East Africa, by making access to Eritrea’s ports possible. Better ties could help Eritrea overcome decades of relative isolation.

The leaders jointly raised the Eritrean flag inside a newly refurbished embassy as a military band played Eritrea’s anthem. They then toured the building and looked at its furniture and two rusting cars that belonged to Eritrea’s last ambassador.

In a tweet Eritrea’s information minister, Yemane Meskel described the reopening of the embassy as “yet another milestone in the robust and special ties of peace and friendship both countries are cultivating with earnestness in these momentous times.”

Isaias left Addis Ababa to return home soon after re-opening the embassy.

Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki pledged to resolve his country’s dispute with Ethiopia on Saturday in a historic visit to Addis Ababa aimed at cementing peace less than a week after the nations declared an end to two decades of conflict.

President Isaias arrived in the Ethiopian capital just five days after Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed visited Eritrea as part of a peace process aimed at ending years of animosity between the neighbours.

He started his three-day visit at Addis Ababa’s airport, where he and PM Abiy strode down a red carpet as a brass band played and traditional dancers cheered. The leaders then drove into the city on a road lined with thousands of people dressed in white shawls and waving palm fronds as Ethiopian and Eritrean flags flew side-by-side from lamp posts.

Scenes similar to what was accorded PM Abiy during his historic visit to the Eritrean capital, Asmara, were seen. Thousands lined the streets from the airport to the presidential palace cheering and joyfully welcoming the visiting president. Afterwards, Isaias toured an industrial park in Hawassa.

The two leaders shared laughs and hugs at an official lunch on Saturday as PM Abiy said his counterpart was “beloved, respected and missed by the Ethiopian people”. “We are no longer people of two countries. We are one,” President Isaias Afwerki told political and cultural figures gathered in a palace built during Ethiopia’s imperial days. “We’ll go forward together.”

On Sunday evening, the two men addressed a gathering of residents at Addis Ababa’s Millenium Hall. As they entered the entered the Millennium Hall on Sunday evening, Abiy and Isaias held hands and waved at the crowd, prompting loud cheers. Musicians performed under portraits of the two leaders.

“We have chosen to tread a path and work together for development, prosperity and peace, having overcome a conspiracy of hatred, revenge and destruction,” President Isaias told the audience.