Ethiopian Airlines reaches agreement to ferry African passengers to India

Aviation news coming through from Ethiopia is that Ethiopian Airlines has reached an agreement with TravoCure Healthcare to ferry passengers seeking medical care in India.

Various aviation publications report that the East African Airliner, Ethiopian, has formally partnered with TravoCure which is a subsidiary of the Akbar Group.

The partnership will see Ethiopian Airlines providing services for travellers from the African continent to India for medical purposes.

Laing Buisson News posted that the two parties, Ethiopian and TravoCure, are set to conduct joint promotional activities to highlight India as a medical tourism destination.

The other mission for both companies is to promote India’s medical technologies at internationally accredited hospitals and clinics, thus setting India to become a medical destination of choice.

It is also reported that Akbar Travels’ main objective through TravoCure Healthcare is to provide support services in medical and wellness travel to patients anywhere in the world.

This mission and service will be provided through TravoCure’s chain of 200 offices across the Asian country, India, including those at airport counters.

In the collaboration with Ethiopian Airlines, passengers travelling to India from Africa for medical reasons receive discounts for medical treatment through the Akbar Travels Group.

In other news reaching BusinessTech Africa, seasoned South African airline industry businessman Gidon Novick has downplayed reports that he wanted R1 billion rand (USD57.7 million) to merge Global Aviation Operations LIFT and South African Airways.

The development comes as Novick resigned from the Takatso Consortium’s board as the company looked to buy 51% shares of the embattled SAA.

News24 has it that Novick, said there was nothing wrong about codeshare negotiations as these were standard business collaborations.

“We are in discussions with SAA and several other airlines. These are normal industry arrangements. There is no attempt at a clandestine backdoor merger,” he said.

“It’s the best way to remove any potential conflicts and align interests going forward as well as consolidate an industry that has one dominant player currently and many smaller players. We need a competitive and sustainable industry.”