Ethiopian airlines announced that it has developed a digital mobile app and chatbot-assisted shipment tracking service to elevate cargo customers’ experience.
“The cargo mobile app is developed by our in-house digital team that has been building up its expertise by developing different applications including our passenger mobile application,” said Mihiretab Teklay, Director, Group Integrated Marketing Communications.
The team has leveraged its experience to develop the cargo mobile app which was launched on April 16, 2020 and is available to download from both Play Store and App Store.
Ethiopian Airlines was Africa’s busiest carrier, making more than 350 flights per day to more than 120 destinations.
To survive from the recent damage the airline is going on a new stream of income, including cargo and MRO business and recently the airline has converted its Boeing passenger aircrafts to cargo.
“We are now focusing on cargo. The cargo business is relatively doing well because urgently required medical supplies are needed all over the world from east to west, north to south and so on. We are also trying to convert some of our passenger aircraft to cargo,” said Tweolde Gebremariam CEO of Ethiopian Airlines.
Ethiopian has seen an increase in the demand of cargo service in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. “The customer contact channels we used to serve our cargo customers were less than efficient in the face of the ballooning demand for air cargo service,” says Mihiretab, “that is when our digital experts put their heads together and came up with the cargo app to circumvent the lengthy process and bring the service at customers’ fingertips.”
The initial self-service features of the cargo app include checking flight schedule, cargo tracking from booking to receiving, checking the status of shipments and initiating charter request.
Ethiopian Cargo has extended its reach to 74 destinations globally and caters to charter flight needs in the world; carrying much needed medical supplies in the ongoing fight against COVID-19.
“The pharma wing housed within our cargo facility has been very critical particularly to handle and distribute medical supplies across Africa and beyond as part of the efforts to tackle COVID-19,” added Mihiretab.
Through its facilities and modern freighters the airline is being chosen by the international community as the major cargo partner and suppliers of medical equipments across the world to combat the pandemic.
Recently the airline has successfully distributed the three batches of medical supplies from Jack Ma and Alibaba Group to African countries.
According to Mihiretab, currently, the airline operates over 100 charter flights per month and generate revenue that help it to cope up the current crisis.