Ethiopian reports lack of progress in SAA joint-venture talks

Ethiopian Airlines is making slow progress with talks regarding cooperation with South African Airways, according to the former’s CE Tewolde Gebremariam. The Addis Ababa-based carrier said in October last year that it was willing to provide “planes, pilots and maintenance services” to ailing SAA as part of a “joint venture” with the country’s government, but noted that it did not wish to take on legacy issues such as debts. Gebremariam says that talks with South Africa’s government “have been a challenge so far”. “We are still discussing, but I would say it has not made the expected progress,” he states. Explaining Ethiopian’s strategic thinking regarding a potential SAA tie-up, Gebremariam notes that South Africa’s origin and destination-focused traffic means its is a very different proposition to the hub-based model at Addis Ababa. That dominance means South Africa is “very, very competitive… because every mega-carrier in the world is there”, Gebremariam observes.<br/>