Disha Shah Ghosh - Mumbai Ethiopian Airlines, the flag carrier of Ethiopia, is considering connecting three more destinations in the Indian market, after announcing three weekly flights to Chennai.
Talking to TravelBiz Monitor, Lemma Yadecha Gudeta, Chief Commercial Officer, Ethiopian Airlines, said, “We have 3 more cities under consideration to add to our route network in India. These are in discussion stage at the business level. The Air Services Agreement needs a review, and we will speak to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation in India in this regard.”
Talking about code-share partnerships, Gudeta said, “India is a sub-continent, and we need partners to service such a huge market. We are open to code-share agreements primarily with legacy carriers, and depending on the business model, LCCs as well. Earlier, we used to work with Air India and Jet Airways.” In terms of interline agreement, he said that they offer more accessibility and it will be an advantage for Ethiopian to offer last mile connectivity with such partners.
Shedding light on their load factor on the existing routes in India (capacity has been curtailed due to the pandemic), he said, “Currently, we are recording an average of 69-70% of load factor.” Prior to Covid, the carrier witnessed 82-83% load factor on its India routes.
