Ethiopian Informer
ADDIS ABABA: July 23 (EI) — Ethiopian Airlines Group (ET) on Tuesday revealed its ambition to further strengthen its strategic cooperation with the French government and international French companies amid the airlines’ growing presence across Europe.
Ethiopia’s flag carrier announced its plan to further strengthen its strategic alliance with the French government and global French companies following a meeting between the Ethiopian Group CEO, Tewolde GebreMariam, and a French delegation led by French Minister of Economy and Finance, Bruno Le Maire, at the airlines’ headquarters in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa on Tuesday.
The discussion mainly focused “on the areas of partnerships and cooperation between the airline and French companies,” an Ethiopian Airlines statement issued on Monday read.
Bruno Le Maire, who noted the launch of an Ethiopian Airlines flight to the French city of Marseille earlier this month as an “indicative of the growing partnership between Ethiopia and France,” stressed that “there is a huge potential for further partnership in aviation related areas.”
Gebremariam, who noted the French foreign minister’s visit as a “special privilege and honor” for Ethiopia’s flag carrier, also said that “we at Ethiopian Airlines are very happy on our partnership with the French government and various French global companies.’
According to Gebremariam, among the French international companies that have forged strong partnership with Ethiopia’s national carrier include the aerospace giants Airbus, Safran and Thales as well as the Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, which is the largest airport in France and second-largest in Europe.
“We are working together to expand our partnership to the next level,” Gebremariam said, adding “Our Airbus fleet is growing very fast with twelve A-350 in service and 12 on order.”
Gebremariam, noting that the Ethiopian airlines group is presently “evaluating other airplane models from Airbus,” further stressed that the recent addition of Marseille to the airlines “fast-growing network of 121 international destinations is also a very strong sign of a growing relationship between Ethiopia and France.”
The discussion among the Ethiopian Airlines Executive Management team and the French side, among other things, also covered areas of cooperation and partnership in airport expansion, duty free facilities and in-flight entertainment, it was noted.
The agreement to further strengthen strategic alliance among Ethiopian airlines and French international companies came as the airlines’ growing presence in Europe.
Ethiopian Airlines has been flying to Paris since 1971 connecting Africa to the French capital for nearly five decades, which Ethiopian airlines said “facilitated trade investment, tourism and people-to-people ties between Africa and France.”
On July 2, Ethiopia’s national carrier commenced its second destination in France to Marseille, France’s second largest city, which is also marked the airlines’ 20th destination in Europe.
According to the airlines, with the addition of the new flight route to Marseille, Ethiopian now operates over 60 passenger flights to European cities every week.
Currently, Ethiopian flies to more than 120 international destinations across five continents with young fleets.
