Ethiopian Airlines (ET) is considering dramatically expanding its Indian market presence in the coming months the Star Alliance carrier's Senior Vice President for Global Sales, Esayas Woldemariam Hailu, has said.
At present, Ethiopian serves Delhi and Mumbai (with a planned 787 service planned once the aircraft is returned to service) but is also considering starting flights to India's so-called "Tier II" airports.
"So far it (the plans for the new routes) is for Chennai, Bangalore and Kolkata. Cochin, Trivandrum and Hyderabad are also interesting destinations for the Ethiopian Airlines... We are trying to start from Chennai within a year," Esayas Woldemariam Hailu, Senior Vice President, Global Sales, Ethiopian Airlines, told PTI here.
Source [The Economic Times, India]
Hailu went on to add that Ethiopian intends to exploit the growing Indian tourist market - the fastest growing outbound tourism market in the world, and in terms of numbers, the second fastest after China - but will also aim to tap into strengthening India - Africa trade relations which stood at USD70billion in 2011/12 but is projected to grow to USD100billion by 2015.
