From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Mon Feb 23 2009 - 17:09:11 EST
Ethiopian Airlines cuts intl flights as crisis bites
Mon Feb 23, 2009 3:11pm GMT
ADDIS ABABA, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Ethiopian Airlines said on Monday it was
cutting flights to the United States and China as the global financial
crisis hit passenger numbers.
Girma Wake, chief executive officer of the airline -- one of Africa's
leading carriers -- said they had seen a fall in the number of incoming
passengers coming from the two countries.
"Ethiopian Airlines began to feel passenger and cargo contraction in
November 2008, but December 2008 was when the changes became noticeable," he
said in a statement.
Girma said the six weekly flights to the United States would be cut to four,
while the number of weekly flights to China had been cut to 12 from 14. The
airline hopes to boost operating revenue by more than 6 percent to $1
billion this year.
Tourism represents just 2.5 percent of Ethiopia's gross national product.
But the government has set an ambitious goal of attracting a million foreign
visitors a year by 2010, quadrupling current figures. (Reporting by Tsegaye
Tadesse; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
C Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved
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