No More Paper! Ethiopian Airlines Goes Fully Digital

In Africa, Ethiopian Airlines is a force to be reckoned with. It is the biggest airline in the continent and surprisingly it is owned and managed by the Ethiopian government.

This is quite an irony because, in Africa, it is widely believed that the government cannot successfully run enterprise. No thanks to poor management, bureaucracy and corruption. A classic example is an epic collapse of Nigerian Airways, then Nigeria’s national carrier.

This is is not the case with Ethiopian Airlines as it is waxing stronger. To further consolidate its position as the leading airline in Africa, it announced that it has fully digitalised all of its business processes – like aircraft maintenance and flight operations, commercial operations, finance, Human Resource Management, customer services, procurement and supply chain management, online learning, management approvals and authorisations, etc. – by removing paper from the entire system.

Group CEO, Mr Tewolde GebreMariam, said: “Although we started the digitisation project in the last few years, today marks an important milestone in our history as we are removing paper from all our business processes. Leading in the digital revolution and leveraging on the latest advancement in the information and communication technology of the global airline industry, Ethiopian will scale up its operational excellence, customer intimacy and cost leadership strategies. ICT will enable us to deliver customised global standard customer services as per the preferences of each and every customer.

“We are living in the fourth industrial revolution which is fundamentally different from the previous industrial revolutions, especially in the speed of change and disruptions. Our continued success depends on our strategic response and our abilities to adapt to the velocity, breadth, depth and scale of the quantum changes coming our way. To this effect, we have embedded digitisation in our organisational operating system with our valued customers in mind.”

This is a huge milestone for Ethiopian airlines as this will further boost its reputation as one of the best-run airlines in Africa. In addition, it will put it in a better stead to take over Nigeria’s Arik.

Esayas Weldemariam, director of International Service at Ethiopian Airlines Group back in August confirmed their interest in Arik saying: “Following the bid opened by the Nigerian government, we are negotiating to secure management contract of Arik Air.

“Based on the terms and conditions set by the government of Nigeria, Ethiopian Airlines has summited its offer to take over the management of Arik Air. We are bidding with other airlines, if we agree on the negotiations we are ready to go and take over the management.”

Ethiopian Airlines (Ethiopian) is the fastest growing airline in Africa. In its seven decades of operation, Ethiopian has become one of the continent’s leading carriers, unrivalled in efficiency and operational success.