Ethiopian Airlines is the frontline in the tender application meant to select a team that will set up and manage of Nigeria’s new national carrier. The Nigerian Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika had made the announcement last month with the hope to launch operations by the end of the year.
“We are among a small group with an interest in establishing a national carrier (in Nigeria)…we do not know the results (of the tender), though we are frontrunners,” Tewolde Gebremariam CEO Ethiopia Airlines told Reuters.
Ethiopian Airlines already has contracts for maintenance work with two Nigeria based carriers Arik Air and Midview Airline he added.
As part of its effort to form strategic partnership with African airlines, the Ethiopian Airlines has purchased 49 per cent shares in Guinea Airlines, 45 per cent in Zambian Airlines, 49 percent in Chad airlines.
As for Mozambique and Equatorial Guinea airlines the carrier has almost full ownership
State owned Ethiopian Airlines has recorded a net profit of $229 million during the past fiscal year ended in July 2018.
According to Reuters Ethiopia had in June said it would open Ethiopian Airlines and other companies including the telecoms monopoly up to private domestic and foreign investment, but details have not yet been made public.
