Frehiwot Tessema, 43, was raised and educated in Addis Ababa. A mother of two, Frehiwot holds a BA degree in Business Administration.
While working for a foreign aviation company, who had a two-year contract in Ethiopia, she saw an opportunity to invest in the general aviation business in Ethiopia. After finalizing her employment contract with the foreign aviation company, she decided to establish her own private airline.
In 2009 she realized her dream by establishing Aberdair Aviation partnering with Aberdair Aviation of Kenya. Aberdair used to lease aircraft from Aberdair Aviation of Kenya using its operating license in Ethiopia.
The company changed its name to Aquarius Aviation in February 2013 due to some confusion with Aberdair in Kenya.
Aquarius Aviation commenced operations with one leased Aero Commander 690 aircraft. The company provides chartered passenger flight services to embassies, international organizations, oil exploration companies, mining companies aid agencies and tourists. The company manages aircraft owned by other companies and individuals. The company also provides emergency flight services.
At the moment the company has three pressurized twin engine aircraft and one helicopter, Eurocopter AS350, based in Addis Ababa. The company also has a Grand Cessna Aircraft under its operating license. However, Frehiowt says this aircraft is currently in Kenya due slow market in Ethiopia. The company operates two Aero Commander seven-seater aircraft and one Beech 1900, which is a 19-seater aircraft. The Eurocopter has five seats. All of them are leased from Kenyan and South African companies.
Beech 1900 aircraft:
Frehiwot, the major shareholder and general manager of Aquarius Aviation, says that she has decided to give shares to her employees. “In December 2014 I decided to give some shares to my employees who started working with me from the beginning and who have been struggling with me for the past five years. I have decided to give seven shares to these dedicated employees. That is the plan,” Frehiwot told The Reporter.
Currently, Aqauarius Aviation has two shareholders. According to Frehiwot, the other shareholder is a silent partner. “He is not involved in the company,” she says.
Aquarius Aviation has 27 employees – 23 of them are Ethiopians while the rest are expatriates. “The expats are pilots and engineers. They are not directly employed by us but they have been working with us for the past five years.”
So Frehiwot will soon give one share each to her seven employees who had served the company since its inception.
“It is an effort to reward them and involve them. I want them to feel this company belongs to them,” Frehiwot said.
Frehiwot says the charter flight market in Ethiopia is a small market. “We are not many at the moment. We do not have much business; so we all are chasing the same clients. There are about six of us actively involved in passenger charter flight service,” she said.
According to Frehiwot, the competition is not that tough; however, she says there is no big market. “We are still small. As the economy is growing so will the air travel market. Ethiopia’s economy is growing; so we expect that the market will be better very soon,” she said.
The general aviation business in Ethiopia is highly regulated. The domestic flight service is reserved only for Ethiopian nationals and private airlines cannot operate aircraft with more than fifty seats. Currently, there is only one private airline – Trans-Nation Airways (TNA) – that provides scheduled domestic flight service. There are 15 registered private airlines in Ethiopia but only six of them are active and all of them except TNA provide charter flight services.
“We do have a number of problems,” Frehiwot says. “We do not have a maintenance hangar and counter at the airport. But the Ethiopian Airport Enterprise is in the process to give us a plot of land at the Addis Ababa Bole International Airport where we can build a maintenance hangar. We also have problems with advertising our company at the airport because we do not have our own counter where our customers check in. I hope things will change gradually.”
The mining sector in Ethiopia is thriving. There are a number of oil exploration companies working here. There is also a construction boom in this country and there are only six private airlines actively operating at the moment.
Despite all these facts Frehiwot says that the market is small. “Even if these companies are working here, unfortunately, people prefer to use vehicles because the road conditions in Ethiopia are good. With the exception of the south eastern part of the country you can drive to any part of the country. Time constraint is not that much an issue in Ethiopia now. People can drive, visit and return to Addis Ababa. So air transport is not essential at the moment” she says.
Frehiwot says that Aquarius Aviation flies to the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) at least four times a month and it offers 50 percent discount in a bid to contribute its share to Ethiopia’s flagship project as a local company.
Frehiwot has a plan to strengthen her company’s capacity. “There is the market potential. It is a big country with huge population and growing economy. We know there is the potential in this country and we want to be stronger and have more aircraft. We want to have our own aircraft so that we can reduce what we pay for aircraft lease and charge our customers less. And they will use our aircraft very often.”
The fact that she is able to work in her home country makes Frehiwot happy. “Basically what makes me happy as a local person is that this country is growing fast and I am here to contribute to the development of my country. And we are very keen to serve our clients and thereby contribute to the development of the country. We look forward to improving our services,” she concluded.