Today is a day of joy for most Ethiopians and all freedom loving people around the world. The ruling Woyanne tribal junta has finally admitted this morning that Meles Zenawi, the genocidal tyrant who has been terrorizing the people of Ethiopia for the past 4 decades, is dead.
The state-controlled ETV reported that Meles Zenawi has died yesterday, but the fact is that he died in the early morning of Sunday, July 15, as first announced by the Ethiopian National Transitional Council (ENTC).
Meles suddenly disappeared from the public view 61 days ago on June 20. On July 11, he went into a coma and was flown to Belgium, according to an eyewitness who is working for Ethiopian Airlines. After the doctors at St. Luc Hospital tried to revive him for the next 4 days, he took his last breath on July 15.
Ethiopian Airlines (EAL) is consistently proving to be a bad financial deal for travelers to and from Ethiopia. EAL used to tout itself as the most affordable way to travel back home. But our research finds that at least nowadays, that is most certainly not the case. For the three-week time period beginning on September 1, we randomly searched on Expedia.com for round-trip flights from locations where many Ethiopians live abroad, to Addis Ababa. What we find is that EAL always turns out to be more expensive than the best deal, sometimes by many hundreds of dollars. See the results further below for trips to Addis from DC, Atlanta, London, and Rome, for example.
Why is EAL overcharging passengers? Two factors appear to play a role.
(1) Extracting foreign exchange from the diaspora. Even before the Meles-disappearance fiasco, the regime had been in a bind, running dangerously low on foreign exchange reserves. But now things are going from bad to worse: Woyanne elites and others with political connections
are bringing their hard currency reserves into safety, i.e. out of the country, as reported here. The past and ongoing Forex crunch of the TPLF regime is likely to create pressure for companies under TPLF control that get their primary business from the diaspora and foreigners — such as EAL — to do their best to extract as much hard currency money from their customers. After all, hard currency from the diaspora is now needed more urgently than ever, to keep senior military officials rich and happy so that they don’t turn on the TPLF elite.
(2) EAL mismanagement. Since a competent chief executive of EAL had been removed and the airline put into the hands of TPLF insider Tewolde Gebremariam, EAL has been undertaking bizarre moves, such as forcing airline staff to take wage cuts shortly after announcing sterling profit growth (read here). So it shouldn’t surprise if flights become as expensive as they have become.
The net profit of Ethiopian Airlines in the 2011/2012 fiscal year has tumbled by 40 percent to 732 million birr year-on-year. In the 2010/2011 fiscal year Ethiopian earned a net profit of 1.23 billion birr, which dropped by 500 million birr. In the 2011/2012 fiscal year, which ended on June 30, Ethiopian hauled 4.6 million passengers, a 25 percent surge in comparison to that of the previous year. The airline generated an operating revenue of 33.8 billion birr, up 37 percent. Operating expense increased by 35 percent to 5.7 billion birr. The airline made an operating profit of 1 billion birr and its net profit stood at 732 million birr.
Ethiopian said the unaudited figures for the fiscal year show that despite the challenges faced by the airline during the year, it finished the year in black with strong overall performance and is set to continue its growth to achieve goals set in its Vision 2025. At a press conference held yesterday Ethiopian CEO, Tewolde Gebremariam, said that the just ended fiscal year was the most challenging year.
“The fuel price hike was a daunting challenge. For the first time the price of fuel stayed high for a long time. It was above USD 120 per barrel for a year-and-half. The European economic crisis reduced the demand for air travel and the economic growth of China and other Asian countries stalled,” Tewolde told reporters at his office. “All these have affected the profitability of the global airline industry. As you have heard Kenya Airways has started laying off employees. And a number of major international airlines have registered loss. Despite all the challenges we are profitable. We made an annual salary increment of 6-8 percent.”
An official at Ethiopian told The Reporter that the 20 percent devaluation of the Ethiopian currency against the US dollar in September 2010 inflated the net profit the airline made in the 2010/2011 fiscal year. “One of the contributing factors for the surge in profit in that fiscal year was the devaluation. And it is unfair to compare the profit made in 2010/2011 to the 2011/2012 fiscal year,” the official said.
The airline introduced a six percent salary increment for employees earning a monthly salary of 4000 birr and above, seven percent for those who earn between 2000-4000 birr and six percent for those who earning 2000 birr and below. At an annual internal meeting with employees held on Wednesday at the African Union Assembly Hall the management of Ethiopian management briefed them about the challenges the airline faced during the fiscal year.
It was a tough year for the global airline industry. Last March IATA forecast that the global airline industry would make a profit of USD 3 billion. However, IATA said African airlines would lose a total of USD 100 million. South Africa Airways, which is currently in the red, is receiving subsidy from the government. Royal Air Marroc, the national flag carrier of Morocco, which declared bankruptcy, is laying of employees.
Tewolde said Ethiopian is in the third year of the Vision 2025 (a 15-year development strategy) adding that the airline is growing according to schedule. “We are growing at an annual rate of 25-30 percent. We are on the right track,” the CEO said.
He added that the airline plans to build a new cargo terminal and maintenance hangar.
Ethiopian has set up a second hub in West Africa in Togo where its affiliate airline ASKY is based. ASKY was established by the private sector in 2007 and became operational in 2009. Tewolde said that ASKY, which is in its third year of operation, has managed to achieve a rapid growth.
The CEO disclosed his management’s plan to establish two regional hubs in southern and central Africa. Under Vision 2025 Ethiopian anticipates to increase its fleet to 120 from the existing 47, the number of destination to 90, the volume of passengers to 80 million and its employees to 17,000.
Currently, the airline is expanding its aviation academy at a cost of 42 million dollars.
ATLANTA (CN) – A businessman claims in court that a magazine defamed him by accusing him of involvement in “‘human trafficking’ of Ethiopian women serving as household maids in Saudi Arabia who are held in ‘slave-like conditions’ and subjected to beatings and other abuses.”
Jemal Ahmed sued Elias Kifle and Ethiopian Review, in Federal Court. They are the only defendants.
“Plaintiff Ahmed brings this action seeking damages for defamatory statements by defendants Elias Kifle and the Ethiopian Review asserting that, through his business relationship with Sheikh Mohammed Al Amoudi, plaintiff Ahmed is ‘in charge of,’ participates in, and/or is involved in ‘human trafficking’ of Ethiopian women serving as household maids in Saudi Arabia who are held in ‘slave-like conditions’ and subjected to beatings and other abuses,” the complaint states. “Defendants’ defamatory statements are demonstrably false.”
Ethiopian-born Ahmed says he owns and manages several companies in Africa, Europe and North America. One of his businesses, which grows coffee beans and exports them to the United States and elsewhere, is co-owned by Saudi Arabian-Ethiopian billionaire Sheikh Al Amoudi, according to the complaint.
Ahmed claims that in March, Kifle published a defamatory article on his magazine’s website, linking him to Al Amoudi’s alleged “export” of 45,000 Ethiopian women a month to Saudi Arabia.
Kifle, a U.S. resident born in Ethiopia, publishes the Ethiopian Review, an online “news and opinion journal,” from his home in Atlanta, according to the complaint.
Ahmed claims the Ethiopian Review picked up a March 15 article from the Saudi Gazette, “45K maids to arrive every month from Ethiopia,” which relied on “an unidentified source in the Ethiopian Embassy in Saudi Arabia.”
Ahmed says the Saudi Gazette article did not mention him, Al Amoudi, or their businesses, and did not connect them to the “export” of Ethiopian women to Saudi Arabia.
Ahmed claims Kifle added false statements to the article, linking him and Al Amoudi to human trafficking and enslavement of Ethiopian women.
The complaint states: “On March 16, 2012, defendants Kifle and the Ethiopian Review re-printed the ‘Saudi Gazette’ article on the Ethiopian Review’s website and added the following text: ‘This news is so shocking it is hard to believe. If it is true, it must be stopped at any cost. This is a wholesale enslavement of Ethiopian women, particularly those from the Amhara and Oromo ethnic groups.'”
Two weeks later, Ahmed says, Kifle wrote and published another article on the Ethiopian Review’s website, titled “Al Amoudi’s Human Trafficker in Ethiopia Identified,” which claimed, among other things: “‘Ethiopian Review Intelligence Unit has now confirmed Al Amoudi’s involvement in this massive human trafficking and also we have been able to identified [sic] the person whom he has put in charge of the operation. His name is Jemal Ahmed.'”
The complaint continues: “The Ethiopian Review article goes on to state: ‘Jemal and other partners of Al Amoudi … are pillaging and plundering Ethiopia, and selling our women as slaves to Arab countries …’
“On information and belief, defendants Kifle and Ethiopian Review did not have any sources with verified, first-hand or direct knowledge of the allegations in the Ethiopian Review article prior to publishing it, nor did they have multiple sources for those allegations.” (Ellipses in complaint).
Ahmed says the article does not identify any sources or documents to substantiate the allegations.
He says he is not associated with or involved in any way with trafficking and enslavement of Ethiopian women, “through his business relationship with Sheikh Al Amoudi or otherwise.”
Ahmed claims Kifle did not contact him before publishing the article, to verify the allegations or allow him to comment, and refused to remove the article.
Ahmed claims that in April he sent a letter to Kifle and the Ethiopian Review, asking for a retraction, but they ignored the request and ridiculed him on the website.
“On the same day they received the April 4 letter, defendants Kifle and Ethiopian Review reprinted portions of it on the Ethiopian Review website, included a link by which the full letter could be viewed, and wrote the following response: ‘Where are you going to sue me this time? In Timbuktu? Bring it on please. Sincerely, Elias Kifle.'”
Ahmed adds: “The defamatory Ethiopian Review article has incited others to make further defamatory and threatening statements in the comments posted on the Ethiopian Review article. Some of these comments threaten violence against plaintiff Ahmed.”
Ahmed claims the article harmed his reputation, which is crucial to his business, and caused him loss of income, embarrassment and mental anguish.
He seeks compensatory and punitive damages for defamation.
He is represented by Mark Grantham with DLA Piper.
Don’t hand over your hard-earned dollars, euros, any foreign currency to them! And save your own money in the process!
Meles Zenawi is either dead, or if he is not actually clinically dead, he is as good as dead in terms of his physical and mental condition and well-being. Here is a critical question: What can every Ethiopian, especially Ethiopians living across the world, do to make it as difficult as possible for Woyanne to continue to rule the country with an iron fist without missing a beat, now that Meles is out of the picture?
One of the greatest powers we all have is the power of our money. Especially at this time of uncertainty, foreign exchange is one of the most important resources TPLF will try to hold on to and continue to amass. They are desperate for forex in order to be able to buy the necessary military and police hardware to put down any uprisings or opposition attacks against them. Perhaps more importantly: Foreign exchange is also needed to keep the military elites happy and well-taken care of—now more urgent than ever for TPLF, because some senior military officials may start getting restive in light of the death (or as-good-as-death) of their patron-saint, Meles.
One of the major sources of foreign exchange for woyanne are revenues they extract from Ethiopian Airlines, predominantly from ticket purchases by Ethiopians residing abroad. Starve the beast by stopping to hand over your money to Woyanne through Ethiopian Airlines (EAL). Moreover, EAL prices are likely to increase, in part because of inefficiencies in management—now likely to get worse since they recently removed a respected chief executive and put one of their own, a true-blue Woyanne, at the helm of EAL. Therefore, in fact EAL is more often than not more expensive than other airlines. So by quitting EAL and taking other airlines instead, you are not only depriving TPLF of foreign exchange that they need now more desperately than ever; you are also being wiser in managing your own finances.
Here is just one of many examples (see on the right) where flying EAL is more expensive than flying other airlines (screenshots from Expedia.com). For a randomly picked roundtrip flight from Washington DC to Addis and back, Lufthansa is the cheapest flight with $1,194, while EAL costs $1,382.
