“India has a special place for Ethiopian Airlines’ cargo business,” said Berhanu Kassa, Director Global Cargo Sales & Services, Ethiopian Airlines Cargo, when he was recently in Delhi to meet cargo agents and thank them for their business in 2015.
       ACNFT managed to get him away from his meeting to find out Ethiopian’s cargo plans in general and India, in particular. Pointing to his airline’s age-old contacts with India, he said, “Ethiopian Airlines has been in India for over 40 years, connecting the sub-continent to all African nations in its wide network.
       “Hence, India has a special place for Ethiopian Airlines’ growth and its global presence.”

Lifting 18 Tons Weekly

       Kassa began by saying that currently Ethiopian was systemwide transporting internationally an average of 18,000 tons on freighters and 6,500 tons in belly per month.
       As for India, he said, “Ethiopian uplifts an average of 300 tons from Mumbai and 50 tons from both Delhi and Chennai per week.”
       He was quick to add that the “traffic has seasonal variances, but there has been a steady growth over the years,” but import volumes were insignificant.

Lion Of Africa

       For the lion of Africa—as Ethiopian would like to be known—India plays a very important and strategic role. The country has had relations with African nations for many years and with the recent improvement in Indo-African ties, Ethiopian Airlines views India as a huge source of its future revenues. Trade between the two nations has risen over the years, approaching $1 billion by 2015 from $660 million in 2011-12.
       It is at such a juncture that Ethiopian Airlines has said that it would partner with its Star Alliance fellow member, Air India, to expand its business in the country.
        
Expansion Strategies

       The carrier has, in fact, charted out two expansion strategies to improve connectivity of Indian market to Africa and the world.  In the first one, it is planning to increase frequency and upgrade capacity to current online destinations. 
       The second involves working to revise the bilateral relations, which would open avenues for expanding operations to other major Indian metro cities besides Delhi and Mumbai.
       Kassa mentioned that the carrier had been “operating daily flights from Delhi and Mumbai and both our routes are doing well, and we had an average load factor of more than 75 percent on both routes.
       “We are aiming for much better performance in 2016 and have been seeing good results in the last few months.”

Freighters Rising

       Speaking about cargo and the freighter flights to India, Kassa said Ethiopian has been serving Delhi with twice-weekly B777 freighter schedules (the flight operates the Shanghai-Delhi-Addis route).
       “The flight shares 40 percent of its capacity for Delhi to uplift cargo mainly to African destinations,” he said, mentioning that “the frequency can grow further based on increasing demand.”
       The cargo chief went on to state India's contribution to Ethiopian’s global presence. “Indian products like garments, fabrics, industrial products, and medicines are consumed across African countries.”
       As part of its India strategy, Ethiopian has targeted Bangalore to be the next freighter destination.
       “Flights have been planned and services will start in the first week of November 2015,” Kassa said.
       Having talked about the India market, Kassa moved on to the ambitious vision the airlines had charted out in November 2010: “With the increasing capacity in terms of fleet and the cargo facility, we are confident that we are on a good track to meet our target of 725,000 tons yearly uplift by 2025. Our year-round uplift for the year ending June 2015 was a record: 290,000 tons,” he said.
       Ethiopian’s fleet too is shaping up: “We have six B777s and two B757s.
       “The B777 freighters are used for long haul services like Europe, Far East, and Indian Sub-Continent, while the B757 are used to cover Gulf and African destinations,” he said. 
       “The freighters will serve 30-odd international destinations with Hong Kong, Shanghai, Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai, Dubai, and Liege (Belgium) being the major ones outside Africa, and Johannesburg, Kinshasa, and Brazzaville the top stations in Africa.”

Building Bole?

       The airline plans to reach its target of 725,000 tons will not be possible with the existing cargo terminal at Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa.
       As Kassa pointed out:
       “The existing cargo terminal has become small to accommodate the growing cargo traffic.
       “The new expansion will provide a total of 1.2 million tonnage capacity per year, which is four times larger than the existing facility. ‘The first phase of the expansion will be completed in the next 12 months and will offer additional cold room facility to cater to local perishable exports such as flowers, fruits and vegetables, meat, and for transiting temperature-sensitive products.”  Additionally, Kassa mentioned that “cargo agents will have enough office and working space to expand their business and facilitate services.”
       One of the two cold room facilities in the existing terminal is used exclusively to handle flowers, fruits, and vegetables. “These products,” said Kassa, “are exported to Europe and the Middle East. This can accommodate two B777 freighter loads at a time. The second cold room is used mainly to handle meat exports and for storage of other temperature-sensitive products, including pharma,” said Kassa.

Tirthankar Ghosh