Ethiopian Airlines and South African Airways are set to launch their partnership as of Summer 2017.
The two sides have signed an expanded codeshare agreement October 01, 2016. Both airlines are members of Star Alliance. The revamped codeshare agreement is anticipated to further enhance the cooperation among the two carriers and avail a range of additional destinations for customers to travel to.
Mr. Girma Shiferaw, A/Vice President Strategic Planning and Alliances, Ethiopian, remarked, “As a successful Pan-African carrier, we have an unshakable stance to work in collaboration with all African carriers. Therefore, revamping the already existing codeshare agreement with our partner, South African Airways, emanates from our common ambition and joint effort to expand our footprint to different destinations and better serve our esteemed customers globally.
The expanded codeshare agreement between the two carriers enables our customers enjoy the best possible connectivity options to multiple destinations and also plays a significant role in enabling greater people-to-people, investment, trade and tourism ties within Africa as well as with the rest of the World.”
Acting Chief Commercial Officer at South African Airways, Aaron Munetsi, said, “We are delighted to be able to enhance our relationship with Ethiopian Airlines, Africa’s fastest growing and most profitable airline. This enhanced codeshare agreement enables us to offer our mutual customers more destinations including Durban, Cape Town and Toronto as additions to the existing codeshare flights.
This enables both airlines to offer our legendary reliable and world class service to our ever growing markets that demand customer focused service. We believe the partnership will be scaled up further in the future for the betterment of customer service.”
Ethiopian Airlines and South African Airways signed the first codeshare agreement on 17, September 2003 and extended codeshare agreement on October 01, 2016 on destinations such as Cape Town, Durban and Toronto. More codeshare destinations will be added in the near future.
Ethiopian Airlines is one of the fastest growing Airlines in Africa. In its seven decades of operation, Ethiopian has become one of the continent’s leading carriers, unrivalled in efficiency and operational success.
Ethiopian commands the lion’s share of the pan-African passenger and cargo network operating the youngest and most modern fleet to more than 90 international destinations across five continents. Ethiopian fleet includes ultra-modern and environmentally friendly aircraft such as Airbus A350, Boeing 787, Boeing 777-300ER, Boeing 777-200LR, Boeing 777-200 Freighter, Bombardier Q-400 double cabin with an average fleet age of five years. In fact, Ethiopian is the first airline in Africa to own and operate these aircraft.
Ethiopian is currently implementing a 15-year strategic plan called Vision 2025 that will see it become the leading aviation group in Africa with seven business centers: Ethiopian Domestic and Regional Airline; Ethiopian International Passenger Airline; Ethiopian Cargo; Ethiopian MRO; Ethiopian Aviation Academy; Ethiopian In-flight Catering Services; and Ethiopian Ground Service. Ethiopian is a multi-award winning airline registering an average growth of 25% in the past seven years.
South African Airways is one of the leading carriers in Africa, serving 74 destinations in partnership with SA Express, Airlink and SAA’s low-cost carrier, Mango. The partnership serves the entire continent and nine intercontinental routes from its Johannesburg hub. This caters for more than half of the African Union states – to 27 destinations in 23 countries in Africa.
It is a member of the largest international airline network, Star Alliance. SAA’s core business is the provision of passenger airline and cargo transport services together with related services, which are provided through SAA and its wholly owned subsidiaries: SAA Technical; Mango its low cost carrier; and Air Chefs, the catering entity of SAA. SAA is a globally ranked 4-star airline and continues to deliver excellent products and service. The airline wins numerous awards every year and boasts being awarded the Best Airline in Africa for 14 consecutive years.