Aman Wole, a longtime Ethiopian Airlines executive with more than 19 years of international aviation experience, has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of Zambia Airways, effective August 1, 2026, the airline announced.
Aman previously held senior positions at Ethiopian Airlines across Africa, Europe and Asia, with a portfolio spanning airline leadership, commercial strategy, sales, market development and strategic partnerships, according to a statement from Zambia Airways.
Zambia Airways is a joint venture owned 55% by Zambia's state-backed Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and 45% by Ethiopian Airlines — a structure under which the Zambian state retains formal majority ownership of the flag carrier, while Ethiopian Airlines holds a substantial minority stake.
As CEO, Aman's mandate covers improving operations and customer experience, expanding routes, strengthening partnerships and ensuring financial sustainability. He is also expected to promote what the airline described as a high-performance culture built around safety, innovation and professionalism. The statement did not specify route targets, revenue figures, or a timeline for reaching profitability — details that will matter as the carrier works to establish itself in a competitive southern African market.
Zambia Airways Board Chairperson Jomo Matululu welcomed the appointment, citing confidence in Aman's international experience and leadership.
> "This appointment reflects the Board's commitment to strong leadership and our vision of building a competitive, safe, customer-focused and market-driven airline that connects Zambia to regional and global opportunities," Matululu said.
Aman, for his part, said he was honored to lead the airline at what the company described as an important stage of its development.
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The appointment is worth reading alongside the ownership structure it sits inside. Ethiopian Airlines holds 45% of Zambia Airways — short of a controlling stake — yet the CEO now running the airline's day-to-day operations is an Ethiopian Airlines veteran with nearly two decades of experience inside that carrier's commercial and operational systems. Equity and management control are not the same thing, and in this case they do not fully align: the IDC's 55% share keeps Zambia Airways a Zambian state asset on paper, but the executive chair of daily operations comes from the minority shareholder's own management bench.
What that combination means in practice will depend on how Aman's mandate is exercised. A CEO steeped in Ethiopian Airlines' commercial strategy, network planning and partnership frameworks is likely to bring those practices — reporting lines, sales approaches, route-planning methodology — into Zambia Airways' operations, whether or not that transfer is formally described as such. The ENA statement announcing the appointment does not characterize the arrangement in those terms, and Ethiopian Airlines has not issued its own statement framing the appointment as part of any wider continental approach. That leaves the operational-influence question a matter of inference from the structure disclosed, not a documented strategy.
For Zambia, the arrangement offers access to an executive trained inside one of the region's more established airline operations, without requiring the state to cede its majority equity position. For Ethiopian Airlines, a 45% stake paired with its own executive in the top seat gives the airline a meaningful voice in how a state-majority carrier is run, even without a controlling vote on the board.
What the announcement does not resolve is how quickly Zambia Airways can translate new leadership into measurable results. The carrier's statement outlined broad priorities — operational improvement, route expansion, partnership building, financial sustainability — without attaching benchmarks, dollar figures, or specific new destinations. Whether Aman's tenure produces a leaner cost base, expanded regional connectivity, or a credible path to profitability will likely become clearer only in subsequent reporting periods, as Zambia Airways discloses operational or financial data.
The appointment, in the meantime, marks a concrete new data point in the aviation relationship between Addis Ababa and Lusaka — one whose broader significance, if any, will depend on how the CEO's mandate is exercised and disclosed going forward, rather than on any pattern that current reporting can establish.
