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The 97-room Ethiopian Skylight In-Terminal Hotel is connected to Departure Terminal 2, within walking distance of the departure gates. This is on top of the 373-room Ethiopian Skylight Hotel, built on 40,000 square metres land located at about five minutes’ walk from the airport with as facilities, 27 presidential and executive suites, four restaurants, a conference and banquet hall able to handle 2,000 persons, Swimming pool, gym, health centre, café and gift shops. How Ethiopian Airlines intends to dominate the African skies. A member of the Star Alliance, Ethiopian Airlines African presence and influence doesn't end with the airline itself. In fact, Ethiopian Airlines, as a larger company has stakes in numerous other African airlines, giving it more influence than meets the eye. it has strategic partnerships and hubs with stakes in several African carriers to varying degrees. Here are just a few that we know of. Let’s start with, Lome in Togo. Ethiopian Second Hub after Addis Ababa is Lomé. In Lomé Ethiopian Airlines has developed a strategic partnership with ASKY, a privately-owned multinational airline born in Togo with Lomé as its African headquarters, main hub with a network of 26 destinations. Ethiopian Airlines invested in Asky for 40% ownership of the company. ASKY other shareholders include the multinational Ecobank and Ebid, Bank of Investment and Development and West African Development Bank. Ethiopian Airlines foothold in Lomé confirms its acknowledgment of the growing demands for safe, reliable and competitive air transportation services in Central and West Africa. As the major shareholder with aviation expertise, Ethiopian Airlines has a management contract with Asky to manage and operate its services and has various codeshares with Asky. In the codesharing commercial arrangement, on a number of flight routes, both airlines sell seats on flights operated by the other, with each airline using their own flight number. This happens a lot on routes operated by both airlines and where your booking is made from either of them. Here is an example from our Tour of Discovery. We were expecting our flight to be on ET 1002 Abidjan to Lomé but it was on Asky KP11 flight as printed below here: Operated by Asky. Ethiopian’s cooperation and partnership with ASKY Airline has introduced new connectivity between west Africa and Ethiopian worldwide network. Frequent travellers may have noticed these days that for their long haul flight to America for instance, they are all brought to Lomé hub by Asky and picked up by Ethiopian Airlines. Lilongwe (Malawi) is Ethiopian Third Hub. The shareholder agreement was signed between Ethiopian and Malawi Airlines on July 11, 2013 allowing Ethiopian Airlines to acquire a 49% stake in Malawi's flag carrier in southern Africa. According to Quartz, it also operates the airline. Thru this strategic partnership, Ethiopian and the newly formed Malawi Airlines will harmonize their flight schedules so as to provide seamless and best connectivity options for travellers within, to and from the Southern Africa region. Tchadia Airlines. Ethiopian Airlines started a new hub at N’djamena, Chad in partnership with Chad Government by forming an Equity Partner Airline, Tchadia Airlines. The operation commenced on the 1st of October 2018 giving connectivity to domestic, Central Africa, Sudan and West Africa route with Ethiopian Global Network. Anna aero, the online network news and analysis website, points out that the Chad Government controls 51 % of Tchadia, while Ethiopian Airlines owns the remaining 49%. Ethiopian Mozambique Airlines. Ethiopian Airlines started a new hub at Maputo, Mozambique in Equity partnership with Ethiopian Mozambique Airlines on 1st December2018 giving connectivity with the rest of Mozambique destinations for Ethiopian Global Network. Ceiba Intercontinental. Ethiopian entered in to an agreement with ceiba Intercontinental Airlines; a regional Airline with a hub at Malabo, Equatorial Guinea for a management contract on the 22nd of February 2018 and currently working together ensuring the connectivity of the domestic destinations with Spain and the rest of Ethiopian Global Network. Zambia Airways. According to Southern Times Africa, the Ethiopian Airlines group put forth US$13.5million towards the revival of the long-forgotten airline. Established in 1964 but went under in 1995 following liquidity challenges, Zambia Airways is now 45% owned by Ethiopian Airlines. Finally, on Friday, 23 September 2022 the Nigerian’s aviation minister, announced Ethiopian Airlines as the chosen bidder for shares in the new Nigerian airline, Nigeria Air. In the deal, Ethiopian Airlines will own 49% of the new airline, the Nigerian Sovereign Fund 46%, and the Nigerian federal government 5%. at this point, it seems like Ethiopian Airlines is unstoppable as it becomes larger and seemingly more stable and established across the continent. Its method of having significant ownership in various smaller airlines across the continent will give all respective countries involved the pride of having a national airline, without the full risk of funding one from the ground up. Furthermore, with Ethiopian's backing comes implied cooperation with the airline itself. The main worry with this, then, is a lack of true competition - which may ultimately be bad for the African traveller. On the other hand, in the face of stiff competition from the likes of British Airways, Air France, Qantas, Emirates and others, less competition in Africa to an established Ethiopian airline which in reality support African national airlines and creates jobs throughout Africa can only be good for the survival of the airline and for the continent. And having used Ethiopian Airlines for our Tour of Discovery, we can safely say it is a very good airline with excellent customer service. We never got hungry on all our flights and we drunk beer and wine with our meals. The Addis Ababa Bole airport has free fast internet and chairs for relaxing, a retail concourse including duty free shops, bar and restaurants to keep us entertained during our transit time. So until proof to the country we believe we will keep using it. Let us know in the comment section below, your experience of the airport and the airline.