Selects Chinese company for hotel construction

Alarmed by the number of professionals leaving Ethiopian Airlines in search of better payment, the management of the national airliner has made a substantial salary adjustment for its employees.

Effective from January 2008, the salary increment ranges from 20 to 100 percent based on the duties and responsibilities of the employees. Aircraft technicians and marketing personnel will be the biggest beneficiaries. A significant increment has also been made for to co-pilots. The management did not make increments for captains, however, as they had been given previously a 100 percent increment a couple of years ago. The management will confer with members of the cockpit crew in the near future on the issue of salary increment, among others.

At a bi-annual internal staff meeting held on Wednesday at the Millennium hall Girma Wake, Ethiopian CEO, told the gathered employees that the management will make the salary increment to each staff based on his/her contribution to the company. He said that the salary adjustment is believed to reduce staff turn over.

In the 2006/2007 fiscal year, more than 150 professionals, most of them technicians and marketing officers, left the airline. The management has refused to grant release to the cockpit crew because of the exodus of pilots to Middle Eastern airlines. Only one pilot left Ethiopian in the 2006/2007 fiscal year. Dozens of pilots have resigned from their post in the previous years.

Sources say the management had tried hard to convince the board of directors of the airline, chaired by Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin, to approve the salary increment. They added that the management had assured the board that the airline will strive to accelerate its growth.

Girma told the employees that the airline would be able to pay salaries equivalent to the international standard after three or four years if it increased its output. Girma said there was a lot of work ahead to increase efficiency in service delivery, to improve customer care and handling and to withstand the growing stiff competition from international mega carriers. He also said each employee should be committed to efficiently discharging his/her duties and responsibilities adding those who failed to do so would be responsible for the consequences.

The management vowed to identify and avoid bottlenecks observed in the operational system. Girma said the management was undertaking a study which would enable it to reduce cost.

Ethiopian plans to increase international destinations to 60 from the existing 53 and the number of aircraft to 30 from 21 by 2010. It also plans to boost the number of passengers to three million and revenue to one billion dollars.

Meanwhile, the management of Ethiopian has selected the Chinese construction company, CATIC International, to undertake the construction of the four-star hotel, which it plans to build near the Addis Ababa Bole International Airport. Recently, the management of Ethiopian and CATIC signed a Memorandum of Understanding. The investment cost of the hotel is estimated to be 300 million birr. Contracted by Ethiopian, CATIC had previously built the new maintenance hangar at a cost of 5.4 million dollars.

The management of Ethiopian is also looking for a company which will build residential houses for the employees in Addis Ababa. It has secured land in the CMC area from the Addis Ababa City Administration. Girma said the management was evaluating local and foreign real estate companies that would undertake the construction work. He also said the management was holding talks with local banks with a view to finance the construction of the residential houses. Ethiopian has about 4700 employees.