Name: Ethiopian Airlines Thrives Despite Fatal Crash And Rising Fuel Costs
Uploaded: 2019-11-19
Duration: 13 min 58 s
Description: The airline’s CEO discusses plans for expansion and how he’s led the company through crisis and uncertainty.

Mr. Tewolde, that's how you want to be known? Yes. That's right. Not the whole thing? [ LAUGH ] Thank you, welcome. Thank you. First, Tewolde, I want to express our condolences for this very painful year. A 157 passengers, March 10th As somebody pointed out a lot of these passengers on their way to do good things in the world, you just had a memorial service. Tell us about that. Well, Good afternoon, everybody. Glad to be here with you. It's a very tragic accident and It has consumed all our energy, mind, heart and almost everybody it to penalize. We just had the closure last week and we have now been discussing with boiling To build a memorial monument in the class site and also have agreed to do some things for the community like hospital and access org and the soul. So you've watched Boeing, obviously, and worked with them and been with them through this process. Obviously Boeing's separate on a lot of levels, but its leadership, the CEO, is now been stripped of one of his titles. Do you think Boeing has handled this the right way? Well, it's very difficult to comment for me, for on behalf of boy mode. It's a very long relationship between us more than as long as the airline itself, because we started with McDonnell Douglas. This is three So McDonald [ UNKNOWN ] was bought by Boeing later, so it's a very long relationship and this accident is a very tragic accident in the middle of our relationship. Boeing of late is doing the right thing. What could they have done better? I think you suggested me in the past, possibly Moving quickly. Yeah. I think they could have moved faster than they did. So it's very late, but now, they have understood the problem, they have recognized the problem, so they are working with us and visiting the victim's family now. They had met at CEO level couple of visitors to this. And last week they had the executive vice president of government relations and his lead and lead delegation to the class side. So they have also talked to the victims families. I think it's late but better than before. It's late but better than. Yeah. You have a outspending delivery of max 37s. How many of? 30. Well, the total amount of debt is 30. So. And so you know, one of the questions that's being asked is are you going to go forward on that and? What is your decision making going to entail? We're going to decide in the future in the near future maybe in a couple of months but we want to see the airplane first we want to see the modifications. We want to make sure that the the problems in the airplane are Fully addressed. As I have always said, we'll not be the first one. We'll be the last one to fly the airplane because we have to make sure 110 % that the airplane is safe back to the air. So this is a more rigorous process than you went through before? Yes, it is. Yes, because- Is it the most rigorous process you've ever? Yes, because you know, since the accident there are more than eight hundred airplanes grounded for the last eight, nine months now. And we have to see that all the problems are addressed and other airlines flight. And we have to convince our pilots. We have to convince our customers because the accident happened to us. So an interesting question particularly for this group is we're talking about AI and innovation. So Ralph Nader and not everybody knows who Ralph Nader is. Unless you're American but in he was an activist to lead auto safety and his grand nice died in the Ethiopian air crash and he said the software monster called AI took control of the plane for the pilots. He used very forceful language. Nevertheless, it does raise interesting and difficult questions about AI when it comes into contact with human decision making what have you learned out of this process? I've been following the the discussions throughout the day and I think AI and other technologies have to be managed properly meaning they serve us when as long as they are serving as a tool. As long as we use them as a tool, our food control and comment, but when these things unfortunately are empowered more than human beings and when they control human beings or when they. Manage people or override people's actions and reactions then it's a disaster. So, I think- Humans need to maintain control and humans need to be able to override- Yes. AI is a lesson from this. Yes, yes, yes. If we think If we think of stretching the technology beyond its limits, and we are talking about replacing human beings, I think this is uncharted waters and it will be very, very risky and disastrous. So questions from the audience, please go ahead and hold up your hands and I'll come to you What leadership lessons did you learn from this? This plane went down quickly. You had to act quickly. What were the decisions that you make and what did you learn? This accident came to us as a matter of bad luck. We were in the middle of our vision 2025, at 15 years strategic road map. And the airline has grown in the last one decade by five- fold, from less than 48 planes to 125 destinations. And from $ 1 billion annual revenue to $ 5 billion annual revenue. And destinations more than 125 all over the world in five continents. So it was a big surprise for us, and it is a shock But as I said it could have happened to any other airline. It's a bad luck that it happened to us. So from the feedback that we get from all over the world we have the You had to ground airlines quickly and airplanes [ INAUDIBLE ] Yeah. So First- Tell us how that happened, six minutes. Right, I was in the church when someonecalled me from the air traffic controllers that 8302 was lost from the radar. So that was around 9 AM, so the accident was around 9 AM, so I was in the accident place at 11AM. Just two hours after the accident. And then I came back to the office at midday 12PM I have decided to contemplate nobody has called us to ground, no requirement, no regulatory enforcement But it was our own decision to grow and how many airplanes were granted five airplanes for airplanes. Sorry one was in the accident. So around in the evening, China followed suit. And then the next day, Singapore, Indonesia. And then as on Tuesday, Wednesday, Canada, then the United States was the last one on Thursday. So, doing the right thing at the right time is very important. We learn from the process and then the human factor is the most important thing. So we have to attend to the victim's family to our own crew. And that was our immediate priority and we have dedicated our hotel we have a hotel, five star hotel 373 rooms, European airlines owned hotel, and we have dedicated the entire hotel for all the victims families coming from all over the world, and they stay there as long as they wanted because they were grieving And they were shuffling to the accident side we have to arrange shuttles and everything. So that was a big, big choice. Were you surprised that the United States took it was the last country to ground? those planes? Were you surprised? Yes, to be honest yes we were surprised because it should have been done much quicker than before the other countries. Any thoughts of why? Well, according to the information we are given, they were looking for data the right information and they want to understand what went wrong with airplay. So switching gears, since we're running out of time and please raise your hands if you have any questions. You have mentioned to me that the economy despite a the economy doing pretty well, that there's been there's been a slow growth and In the U. S. People fly. Yes. We have people you say, [ UNKNOWN ] there is a fear of [ UNKNOWN ] ->> Yes. It's not a safety issue, something else, tell us. No I just, in the U. S. we were surprised to see that we fly to Washington daily, to New York daily and Chicago and now Hauston. We fly also almost daily to Toronto. It's a big market North America, but it has been a growth market for us. But flying to Africa has somehow stagnated although the economy's doing well. So we thought that it's not. We don't have concrete evidence, but we thought that people are oppressive flying out especially The foreigners- They're apprehensive about their immigration status basically is what you're saying. There's concern- They are concern that immigration laws could change after they go out when they come back so A lot of operation. So this administration, the Trump administration's handling of immigration has made more people nervous about flying. Because of the changes you know, too many changes introduced. That's interesting, any questions? [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Yes. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] So quickly fortunate, a lot of CEOs have to deal with missing earnings and getting beaten up by analyst you had to deal with something Profoundly personal and tragic. How did that affect you? Personally, I know you did this extraordinary outreach to the victims families, but personally, just as a human being what was it like to wake up one morning and realize that you were at the center of this tragedy Well, the first thing is shock, shock beyond imaginable level, and then sort of denial and try to reason out why and how and so on, but quickly I had to return. Back to reality and handle the situation. It was extremely difficult. Tthe entire aeroplane was, when I went to the accident site, you can't see any scrap of an aeroplane. Everything went down. So, it is a very, very unique accident. So, it has taken a lot of energy. But at the same time, we have to also operate the flights and to your surprise, We have not canceled a single flight on the same day. We have operated 340 flights on the same Sunday. So it was on this side we have to handle the crisis. The crew families of the crew of victims families and All kinds of process. But on the other side, we also have to make sure that schedules are maintained, flights are operated right on time and didn't have any delays or any cancellations on the same day. So Mr. [ UNKNOWN ], thank you so much and again our condolences as you go through this difficult time. Thank you. [ APPLAUSE ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

Ethiopian Airlines Thrives Despite Fatal Crash And Rising Fuel Costs

Leadership

The airline’s CEO discusses plans for expansion and how he’s led the company through crisis and uncertainty.