Addis Fortune (Addis Ababa)
10 September 2007
Over 35,000 passengers have arrived in Addis Abeba in the last two months travelling with different airlines.
Ethiopian Airlines has transported 27,000 passengers while the rest flew on 10 different carriers. Additionally, Ethiopians have chartered planes returning from Israel.
Ethiopian has shown a six per cent increase in customer growth compared to the last year even tough Girma Wake, CEO of the airline, does not seem impressed.
"We have seen the number of guests we expected last year," says Seyoum Bereded, director of the Millennium Secretariat. "If they all were coming back at the same time, there is no way we can handle the flight frequency," Seyoum affirms.
Of the arrived guests, the most are from the Middle East followed by those of the North America, sources at Immigration told Fortune. Data at the Ethiopian Airports Enterprise and the Civil Aviation Authority shows that the flight traffic from the Middle East have shown a 20pc increase over last year, while the European traffic has grown by seven per cent.
"Only in the last three days, I have confirmed that 3,700 passengers have arrived," affirmed Mulugeta Asrate Kassa, deputy director of the Millennium Secretariat.
The Ethiopian Customs Authority have arranged a deal with flower suppliers and started welcoming the guests with rose flowers. The flower association agreed to supply 2,000 steam flowers a day as of August 21.
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