Ethiopian Airlines (ET, Addis Ababa International) management have expressed an interest in partnering RwandAir (WB, Kigali), which is currently scouting for strategic partners capable of accelerating its already rapid growth.

Quoting unnamed sources close to the carrier's management, Ethiopia's Reporter newspaper says Ethiopian Airlines sent a delegation to Kigali to sound out RwandAir and Rwandan government officials about a possible tie-up. While Ethiopian CEO Tewolde Gebremariam has confirmed the talks, he did not comment on their progress.

Rwandair chairman, Girma Wake, was previously CEO of Ethiopian Airlines from 2004 to 2011.

The Rwandan government has hired Ernst & Young to draft a turnaround strategy for its national carrier which, despite strong growth under the mantle of maverick CEO John Mirenge, has yet to turn a profit.

RwandAir serves 16 destinations in West, South, and East Africa, and the Middle East using a fleet of two B737-700s, two B737-800s, two CRJ900s, one Dash 8-400, with two B787-8s on order.

For its part, Ethiopian is currently looking for a suitable site for its planned Central African hub which, at one stage, was likely to have been set up in Kinshasa N'Djili in partnership with the Congolese authorities. However, Kinshasa's decision to align itself with Air France (AF, Paris CDG) for its Congo Airways (8Z, Kinshasa N'Djili) venture has poured cold water on those plans.

Ethiopian has also been linked to a South Sudanese carrier in which it will partner that country's government in establishing an airline that will initially focus on domestic operations before expanding regionally.