Ethiopian Airlines’ Jakarta link opens up Africa as feeder market for Indonesia

Ethiopian Airlines has launched its Addis Ababa-Jakarta services on July 20 as part of its South-east Asian network expansion strategy, opening up a new feeder market for Indonesia’s tourism.

The thrice-weekly service is an extension of its daily Addis Ababa-Bangkok flights, operated with Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Jakarta is the fifth city in Ethiopian Airlines’s South-east Asia network after Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and Manila.

Zebiba Miftah, area manager Indonesia Ethiopian Airlines, commented: “We are (determined) to enable Africans or Indonesians to enjoy safe, reliable and economical air connectivity both within the two countries and between the continents (Africa and Asia).”

The service is targeting both business and leisure traffic from both Ethiopia and other African countries to Indonesia and vice versa.

Miftah said that prior to flying directly to Jakarta, the airline had been selling flights to Jakarta via Singapore, in cooperation with Garuda Indonesia for the Singapore-Jakarta leg.

Admasu Tsegaye, Ethiopia’s ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Indonesia, hopes that the service can boost the trade and tourism potential in both countries.

“This is the first African airline to fly to Jakarta. By this we hope to enhance bilateral relations, both in business, trade and friendship between Indonesians and Africans, especially Ethiopians,” Tsegaye said.

To boost leisure traffic to Indonesia, Ethiopian Airlines has appointed Panorama Destination as its tour operator in the country through their Ethiopian Holiday programmes for the next two years.

Ricky Setiawanto, director of business development Africa, Europe, and Baltic States of Panorama Destination, is optimistic that the Ethiopian-Jakarta route will increase visitor arrivals from Africa.

“The first group tour arrived on July 21 with 50 tourists from Ethiopia. The group will spend a total of eight days in Indonesia, exploring Jakarta and Bali,” Ricky said.

“We believe the potential is quite large. This is the new beginning to develop (inbound) traffic from Africa further,” he added. “Ethiopia is a new market, meaning new business. We are very confident with this.”

According to figures from The Directorate General of Immigration, Indonesia welcomed 17,787 visitors from Africa from January to May 2018, an increase of 30 per cent, compared to last year’s figures of 14,591 African visitors for the same period.

South Africa is currently the largest market from the continent with many regular flights such as Qatar Airways, Emirates, Singapore Airlines connecting the country with Indonesia.

Read more...