Ethiopian Airlines bets on Hyderabads medical tourism with launch of direct flights connecting Addis Ababa

Tapping into Hyderabad’s rising repute as a medical tourism hub, Ethiopian Airlines has launched a brand new direct air route connecting town with Addis Ababa, with plans to channel inbound sufferers from throughout Africa to hospitals in Telangana.

Thrice-weekly service

The thrice-weekly service, which started on June 16 from Addis Ababa and on June 17 from Hyderabad, is a part of Africa’s largest airline’s increasing India community. The service will function flight ET 682 from Addis Ababa to Hyderabad on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, with return flight ET 683 departing from Hyderabad on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

Teklehaimanot G Yohannes, managing director of International Services at Ethiopian Airlines Group, informed The Hindu that medical journey is rising as a key progress space for the airline in India.

Relations with main hospitals in India

“Medical tourism is certainly a rising alternative. We have already got established relationships with main hospitals in India, together with a number of in Hyderabad. Additionally, we function a division referred to as Ethiopian Holidays, which additionally promotes medical journey. We are within the means of creating a devoted medical tourism bundle, which can quickly be launched. Once finalised and authorised by our headquarters, this initiative is anticipated to additional increase inbound journey to Hyderabad for medical therapy,” he stated.

The airline’s transfer comes at a time when Hyderabad’s private and non-private hospitals are more and more attracting sufferers from African nations for specialised therapy in cardiology, oncology, nephrology and organ transplants.

Mr. Yohannes famous that the airline’s relationship with Hyderabad started throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, when it began working cargo charters carrying crucial medical provides. “That effort developed into common cargo operations. Today, we proceed to move pharma and IT-related shipments from Hyderabad. While pharma isn’t at all times about excessive quantity, it calls for precision and cold-chain reliability. To that finish, we now have state-of-the-art chilly storage services in Addis Ababa and our personal temperature-controlled pharma containers, making certain integrity from origin to vacation spot.”

Responding to latest considerations over aviation security following the Air India flight 171 crash involving a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner in Ahmedabad, Mr. Yohannes stated, “We function 29 of the identical plane kind. That stated, aviation stays one of many most secure and quickest modes of transportation. We haven’t encountered any main points with our fleet. The incident in India is unlucky, however we proceed to take care of rigorous security and upkeep requirements. Passenger security is our high precedence.”