ETHIOPIAN NAMED OFFICIAL CARRIER FOR AFRICAN UNION GOLDEN JUBILEE YEAR
Africa this year celebrates the 50th anniversary of the formation of the Organization for African Unity, in short OAU, which was later renamed to the African Union. The headquarters of the continental organization have since the inception 50 years ago been located in Addis Ababa, and it comes as no surprise therefore that Ethiopian Airlines, the erstwhile Pan African carrier connecting Africa in days when otherwise one simply had to fly via Europe to reach the other side of the continent, was chosen as the Jubilee Year’s official carrier.
There was pride in the airlines’ statement issued by CEO Tewolde Gebremariam when he said: ‘We are very proud to be selected as an official carrier for the historic golden Jubilee celebration of the Organization of African Unity – African Union. Our main hub, Addis Ababa, is the political and diplomatic capital of Africa and Pan-Africanism is part and parcel of our corporate DNA. For close to seven decades, we have been manifesting our Pan-Africanist creed by serving as a presidential airline for newly independent African countries in the early 1960s; by bringing Africa together and closer to the world in good and bad times; by promoting Africa throughout the world; by always being an aviation technology leader in the continent; and by providing training and aviation services to sisterly African airlines. Ethiopian and the African Union have been working together, for five decades, towards the shared objective of an integrated, peaceful and prosperous Africa that takes its rightful place on the global stage. Today, thanks to the work of the African Union and indigenous African airlines like Ethiopian, the African Renaissance is here’.
The theme of the Golden Jubilee year has been set as ‘Pan-Africanism and African Renaissance’ and will be carried across the airline’s African and international destinations. Ethiopian connects from Addis Ababa to Entebbe, Kigali, Bujumbura, Nairobi, Mombasa, Dar es Salaam and Kilimanjaro
