CGTN- In March, Ethiopian Airlines CEO Tewolde Gebremariam stated he felt the coronavirus pandemic was “a temporary problem” – comparable to a natural disaster or a spike in oil prices.
Several weeks later Africa’s largest carrier is locked in what Tewolde describes as “a struggle for survival”.
“To be honest with you, I had never thought that it would reach this stage,” Tewolde told AFP in an interview this week. “I had never thought that it would spread like this at this speed, and also in this magnitude. It is just too fast and too expansive and it’s beyond imagination.”
Across Africa, airlines stand to lose $6 billion in passenger revenue in 2020 compared to last year because of the coronavirus, the International Air Transport Association has predicted.
Ethiopian Airlines, which is now ramping up cargo operations to help defer lease payments, is facing a revenue loss of $550 million from January to April alone.
If you put yourself in my shoes, the only way for Ethiopian Airlines is to expand or refocus its resources, energy and time on businesses which are not affected by coronavirus,” Tewolde said.
“Will we be able to sustain with only 15% of our revenue?” he said, referring to the amount typically brought in by cargo. “For a short period of time, yes. But for how long? Very difficult to predict.”
In the early days of the pandemic, Ethiopian Airlines was criticised domestically for refusing to follow competitors like Kenya Airways by suspending flights to China, where the coronavirus originated late last year.
But Tewolde said he would make the same call today, pointing out that Ethiopia’s first case of COVID-19 – the disease caused by the coronavirus – turned out to be a Japanese man who arrived in the country from Burkina Faso.
The airline’s China routes now form the backbone of its cargo operations as countries scramble to get their hands on Chinese-produced personal protective equipment and other goods.
This task is made more challenging by the fact that passenger flights, which can carry cargo in their underbelly, are down so sharply.
“Right now, there is a severe short-term shortage of cargo out of China,” said Craig Jenks, head of the New York-based Airline/Aircraft Projects Inc. consultancy.
Long-haul cargo rates are “at least double normal”, Jenks added.
At the start of the crisis, Ethiopian Airlines had 12 cargo freighters, and it has since enlisted “10 to 15” passenger jets to build out its fleet, in some cases ripping out seats, Tewolde said.
That capacity falls short of competitors like Emirates and Qatar Airways, but Jenks said cargo could still potentially give Ethiopian as much as 40% of its normal revenue.
As the severity of the crisis became clear, Ethiopian executives “reached out to the diplomatic community to offer further cargo services and highlight their ability to offer chartered/special flights”, a State Department official said in a statement to AFP.
The airline expects to be deeply involved in Africa’s pandemic response.
On Monday it finished distributing the second batch of masks, testing kits, ventilators and other supplies donated to African countries by Chinese billionaire Jack Ma.
And last week the United Nations opened an aid transport hub in Addis Ababa that will rely on Ethiopian cargo jets to move supplies and aid workers across the continent.
Tewolde said this represented “a continuation of our leadership in Africa” even during periods of conflict or outbreaks of other diseases like Ebola.
“All kinds of problems that Africa has suffered, we have always stood with Africa,” he said.
The company is determined not to lay off members of its regular workforce, though it could resort to pay cuts depending on how long the crisis lasts, he said.
The current cargo boom could start fading in June, and passenger traffic could stay suppressed well after countries lift travel restrictions, he said.
Yet Tewolde said Ethiopian remained committed to long-term growth plans including building a new $5 billion airport outside Addis Ababa.
“We will do whatever it takes to make sure that we survive,” he said.
Join the Conversation on Facebook and Twitter
| AddisNews is not responsible for the contents or reliability of any other websites to which we get contents from and provide a link and do not necessarily endorse the views expressed by them. |
