Ethiopian Airlines negotiating with its suppliers for price reduction

Due to the expanding range and impact of the corona virus- covid19 on the economic and social crises worldwide, the star alliance member Ethiopian air lines starts to negotiate with its suppliers and service providers for a discount.
In an email sent to its suppliers the airline is asking to be provided with discount on all materials supplied by companies by way of concession, volume or monetary amount to minimize the impact and survive the business.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in his announcement, stated that the nation flagship airline has grounded its flight to 30 destinations. Previously the airline cut off fights to some destinations after the destination airports were closed due to the corona virus crises.
Ethiopian air lines has grounded many of its aircrafts and reduce the flight capacity and tried to operate with minimum possible cost by cutting off all non-essential costs.
“The airline is seeing a 20% decline in demand, the corona virus is a huge challenge” said Tewolde GebreMariam, CEO of Ethiopian Airlines Group on African Aviation week that was held last week in Addis Ababa.
As the prime minister stated the air lines loses more than 190 million dollar in revenue so far.
According to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa /UNECA/, Ethiopian air lines, May loses up to 260 million dollar if the current spread of corona virus out break continues.
Ethiopian Airlines is the major contributor to the economy of the nation contributing 4.1 percent of the GDP according to the International Air transport authority.
The corona virus is a huge challenge “however we have certain other experiences that helps us to minimize the outcome, it is a temporary problem we have a capacity to recover” said Tewolde.
The airline stated, that it is taking all possible preventative measures to protect the customer’s health in accordance with the World Health Organization /WHO/and the International Civil Aviation Organization’s /CAO/ standards.
The company said in a statement that even though many other carriers on the continent and worldwide continue to operate, some Ethiopian social media users have launched a campaign targeting the national carrier, making it look like it is the only carrier that opted to maintain its flights. However, in reality, carriers, such as Kenya Airways, Emirates, Air India, Singapore Airlines, Morocco Airlines, and Turkish Airlines have not grounded their fleet, it said. More than ten carriers continue flying to Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, according to the company’s statement.
Ethiopian airlines is a hub from where it serves a network of 125 passenger destinations and 46 freighter destinations.