Legendary Ethiopian Airlines CEO Tewolde GebreMariam quits after 37 years

The longserving CEO of Africa’s largest airline Ethiopia Airlines has stepped down, citing ill health. Starting at the firm in 1985, he become CEO in 2011. He leaves behind a strong legacy, the envy of other African airlines who struggle to match Ethiopian’s operational efficiency.

Tewolde GebreMariam is a towering figure of African aviation, dragging Ethiopian Airlines through a profound modernisation process, and running the state-backed company profitably, in comparison to many continental peers.https://cdae711e63bbabe29eb72861b151ef89.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html

“I pay tribute to the work of a man who has led Africa’s largest airline for over 11 years”, says Abdérahmane Berte, head of the African Airlines Association (AFRAA).

“Under his leadership Ethiopian Airlines became the largest African airline. A position maintained for many years”, he says. “For the sake of history I also note the important role of Ethiopian Airlines as one of the founding companies of AFRAA.”

Ethiopian Airlines tripled its fleet under Tewolde GebreMariam’s watch, from around 40 when he took over as CEO in 2011, to 120 today.

Turnover also grew from $1.3bn in 2011 to $3.9bn in 2019-2020. And Ethiopian’s Addis Ababa hub now flies to 120 destinations, compared to 80 in 2010.

While the Covid-19 pandemic has had a huge impact, kicking a billion dollar hole in the budget, Ethiopian Airlines has managed to be operationally flexible, refitting several passenger planes into cargo carriers, the fruit of a long-started diversification exercise.

From Fifth to First

Ethiopian Airlines was the continent’s fifth largest carrier, after South African Airways, Egyptair, Royal Air Maroc and Kenya Airways. But post pandemic, thanks to this agility — and the decline of other carriers — it finds itself Africa’s biggest as measured by turnover in our exclusive ranking of Africa’s Top 500 Companies.Africa InsightWake up to the essential with the Editor’s picks. Sign upAlso receive offers from The Africa ReportAlso receive offers from The Africa Report’s partners

“Ato Tewolde was a game changer in African aviation. He bumped Ethiopian Airlines into the new century with a solid and steady hand, expanding the airline in terms of scope and profits beyond what was thought possible in Africa”, says one African aviation expert who asks not to be named. “His agility was apparent in Ethiopian’s stunning quick turn once the pandemic decimated passenger traffic by quickly converting passenger aircraft to freighters, earning the awe and admiration of business leaders worldwide. Honestly his handling of ET during Covid was spectacular.”

“I have already retired due to ill-health & the resignation I submitted to the gov’t was accepted”, Tewolde told Ethiopia Check

The man who helped navigate Ethiopian Airlines through COVID

He’s one of those people you wouldn’t look at twice if you passed him in the street. Unless you were returning one of his infectious grins. Modest, respectful and quietly spoken but when Tewolde GebreMariam says something, it carries weight, substance and direction.

Modest, respectful and quietly spoken but when Tewolde GebreMariam says something, it carries weight, substance and direction.

“He’s a regular reader,” says his local PR man. His country manager for Israel, Bilen Arefaine, confirms, pointing to the deep connection between the countries.Ethiopian is believed to be the only airline in the world to name a plane after an Israeli city. The Tel Aviv is a plush Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

It seems Ethiopian Airlines couldn’t have been in safer hands during the pandemic than those of its group chief executive officer.

Talking of dreams, that’s what most of the world’s media thought of Ethiopian’s ambitious plans a decade ago. But Tewolde is not only a dreamer. He’s a doer.“I didn’t fly or make model airplanes when I was a kid,” he says. That smile again. “I just fell into working for Ethiopian. It was that or military service.”

He began his career in 1985 as a transportation agent. He worked his way through the ranks, until he landed the top job in 2011.Ethiopian was a fairly small company for the first 60 years but over the last 15 it’s been revolutionized and has arguably proved itself the most adept airline in the world during coronavirus.

“We launched Vision 2025 in 2011,” says. “Then we had 34 airplanes, now we have 130. Our revenue was around $1.3 billion, it’s now more than $4.5b. We flew to fewer than 60 international destinations in 2011, now we have 127. This is not common in the industry.”And all this was achieved against the odds – oil peaked at $120 per barrel, SARS, Ebola and now COVID all plagued the industry.“Despite all these challenges we’ve not stopped growing.”

Industry insiders say multi-award-winning Tewolde is a visionary. He sees opportunities where others see pitfalls. COVID provides an excellent example. “Our starting point was survival. We had to survive. We had no choice. We had to generate cash.”

The problem was how to do that as a predominantly passenger-oriented airline. Europe, Africa, Israel and others had closed their borders early in 2020. More than 90% of Ethiopian’s passenger services were suspended. They needed to find a monthly minimum $200 million to survive, with no bailout in sight.

Back to Vision 2025

That prophetic document said the company needed to diversify into hotels, catering, maintenance and most importantly cargo.Ethiopian’s starting point was good. It was already the largest cargo carrier in Africa. Globally, there were fewer passenger aircraft in the skies, which meant there were fewer planes carrying cargo in their hold. Because there was less capacity, demand on Ethiopian was growing.

Tewolde decided to fill some of the void.The company already had 10 777 freighter aircraft and two 737s. Ethiopian then began tying cargo to seats on empty passenger aircraft and flying them around the world. After a short while, they removed all the seats, converting the aircraft into cargo planes. Boeing and Airbus supported this move.

“We were the first airliner in the world to convert a new A350 to cargo,” he says.

Ethiopian converted 25 wide-bodied aircraft.Tewolde and his team set up another operation that helped repatriate expats and foreign workers across Africa while bringing more cash into the coffers. Thousands of foreigners were stranded across Africa, nervous about coronavirus and longing for home but no flights were available. Ethiopian laid on flights that brought them to Addis. They stayed in Ethiopian’s 373-room hotel for the quarantine period before flying home – with Ethiopian Airlines, of course, and there was plenty of cargo in the hold for each flight. While the data are not yet published, there is an expectancy withing the company that it will perhaps prove to have been the most profitable airline during the coronavirus period.

source African Report Jerusalem Post