Ethiopia To Lock Horns With Rwanda For Dominance Of Aviation Industry In Africa

Ethiopia has announced plans to build Africa’s biggest and most prestigious airport in a US$5 billion plan that sets it on course to economically lock horns with Rwanda and Kenya over dominance of regional aviation business.

The mooted plan is also meant to seal prospects of East African aviation hub, emerging as the continent’s most dominant aviation space, grabbing the meat away from South African market.

Ethiopia’s plans come immediately after Qatar Airways announced that it was in the final stretches of concluding a deal meant to enable it takeover Rwanda’s flag carrier RwandAir.

Once done, the Qatar Airways-RwandAir deal is meant to heighten the intensity of the battle of East African skies by elevating RwandAir against Kenya Airways and Ethiopian Airlines.

Ethiopia’s new airport at Bishoftu, South of Addis Ababa, analysts say, will become Africa’s most prestigious asset, larger than UK’s Heathrow or France’s Charles de Gaulle.

The plans by Ethiopia reveals Africa’s ambitions to actualize its huge economic potential as the African open skies initiative takes shape.

The new plan by Ethiopia is thus meant to stock healthy competition in the Eastern African region, through national flag carriers.

The development is also refreshing because it provides proof that there is more to regional integration in terms of healthy competition than squabbles.

Rwanda in the last 15 years looked up to Ethiopia to support it to develop its nascent aviation sector.

Ethiopia accepted in the spirit of regional economic cooperation.

As the year 2020 unfolds, Rwanda is now poised to stand up as a significant player in the regional aviation business, overtaking Uganda and Tanzania to favorably compete against main players Kenya and Ethiopia.East Africa recently bore the brunt of squabbles between Rwanda and Uganda in a spat that has potential to erode recent gains made in regional integration.CAPA, a global news agency that covers global aviation and travel industry, says that Ethiopia is now on course to design something that, once on execution stage, will set new dynamics in Pan-African aviation business.The project is set to be the biggest commitment made by any airline to operate an airport.“While it is the case that airlines do sometimes build and operate new airport terminals and very occasionally airports, the suggestion coming out of Addis Ababa the capital of Ethiopia, transcends anything that has gone before it”, CAPA says.The plans without a doubt cements Ethiopian airlines’ dominance of African airspace, using its twin strategy of capacity and consolidation within African […]

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