ADDIS ABABA- The relative geographic location of Ethiopia, which situates the country at the center of the four corners of the globe, is luring promising economic advantages to make it hub of the aviation industry.
The location of Ethiopia is at the center of the East-West and NorthSouth hemisphere. This means its location is very close to Europe, Middle East, Americas and the Fareast. Ethiopian Airlines, the biggest national carrier in Africa, is also another opportunity for the country to give high focus to the sector. These days, the International Civil Aviation is claiming that Ethiopia is taking over the status of aviation hub from the Middle East, Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority Director General Colonel Wesenyeleh Hunegnawe told The Ethiopian Herald.
Ethiopia has long experience in the aviation sector, besides its convenient location for the industry, he said adding this gives greater advantage in terms of economies of scale to Ethiopian aviation industry, passengers, business people and tourists to transit through Addis Ababa to the four corners of the world. The Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority has set to raise the share of aviation in the economy by increasing the number of domestic destinations and enabling the private sector to take part in the industry, the Director General noted.
Meanwhile, the nature of the business is capital intensive and demands highly trained professionals. “It is also highly regulated due to the fact that there is no second alternative after takeoff. As the result, the number of private actors interested in the sector could be very limited,” he said. In addition to the national carrier, Ethiopian, the Authority is working to create strong partnerships with the private sector to engage in the industry, Colonel Wosenyeleh further stated. To feed the sector, the country has two public aviation academies; the one at the Ethiopian Airlines which is equipped with the state-ofthe-art technologies, and the second one is technical training school in the Ethiopian Civil Aviation.
The country is providing aviation operation training to its consumption and to other African countries as well, according to the Director. In collaboration with the Ethiopian Airlines, the Director stated that his office has readied the necessary draft roadmap for the participation of private sector investors to take part in the domestic aviation activities. Specifically, from the tourism angle, Ethiopia has untapped tourism resources to be promoted. Secondly, the tourists who come to Ethiopia are from different tourist sourcing countries.
They have the chance to visit Ethiopia’s various attractions and at the same time it is easy to cross to other African, Asian and European countries in case there are no direct flights from and to the place of their destinations, the Director added. After the Ethiopia-Eritrean peace agreement, the Ethiopian Airlines has resumed its Asmara flights. In addition, the agreement enabled the national carrier to use the Eritrean aerospace to fly over to Europe and other countries which in turn has economic values.
The Ethiopian Herald, December 27/2018
BY HAFTU GEBREZGABIHER
