Ethiopian Airlines Eyes Flying Airbus by 2016

Ehiopian Airlines (ET) announced that it expects to receive A350 Airbus plane by 2016, which it had agreed to buy from the European Aircraft manufacturer Airbus.


Tewolde Gebremaraim Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of ET said that the airline has ordered 14 A350 which was originally conceived in 2004, and had recently its first test flight at the Paris Air show held last June.

Tewolde also said these orders for the A350 on top of the 13 aircraft orders it had ordered to the US aircraft manufacturer Boeing made 787s, will help it further excel in its air services endeavours.

ET  currently has five 787s, which are advertised as being a fast, fuel efficient,  and more spacious compared to its predecessors, has also encountered difficulty this year leading to the aircrafts being grounded for several months before they were allowed to fly again.


Revenue Hikes

The airlines also revealed that its operating revenue increased 165 percent from last year reaching 2.7 billion birr (around 144 million USD). Its net profit has also jumped by 178 percent, to reach just over two billion birr, despite soaring fuel prices, and the grounding of the 787s for several months.

It dedicated its success to what it called the dedication and commitment of employees and wise leadership of the management and board, Flexible capacity & demand management ,Prudent cost management, increasing Charter business, its Right long term strategy, growth of African and Ethiopian economy and strong Customer confidence.

The Airline which was founded in 1945 currently has 76 international and 17 domestic flights, with 60 fleets in possession catering for over 1330 weekly flights and over 190 daily departures.

The Airline is in the process of opening up new flight routes to South East Asian nations, with flight routes opening scheduled later this year for Hanoi, Vietnam and Manila Philippines. It has opened just this year eight new international flight routes and increased frequencies to nine existing flight routes.