Ethiopian Airlines set to buy five aircrafts

Ethiopian Airlines set to buy five aircrafts
By Kaleyesus Bekele (The Reporter)
Ethiopian Airlines, on Thursday, announced it planned to purchase five new aircrafts.

In a joint press conference organized by Airbus and Ethiopian at the Addis Ababa Bole International Airport, Girma Wake, Ethiopian CEO, said that Ethiopian needed to buy five jetliners. Girma told journalists that the Airline had invited Boeing and Airbus to present proposals. Ethiopian has been considering buying the Airbus A350 and Boeing B787-9 (dreamliner) aircrafts. "We are holding talks with the manufacturers. But we have not yet decided on which aircraft to aquire," Girma said.

In 2004 Ethiopian evaluated the A 350 and B787 dreamliner aircrafts and opted to buy the latter. In January 2005, Ethiopian placed orders for ten B787 aircraft with a total value of 1.2 billion dollars. Delivery for these aircraft will begin in 2008. "We opted to buy the B787 because it was more convenient to bring the aircraft into our system. This does not mean that A350 is a bad aircraft," Girma told journalists. "There is a neck to neck competition between the two aircraft manufacturers," he added.
As part of its fleet modernization program, Ethiopian has acquired eleven B767 and B737 aircrafts in the past three years. However, the growing number of passengers has prompted the airline to buy additional aircraft. Recently, it leased an A330-200 from a company called Societede Transport Aerien Regional. According to Girma, the comparison was made based on the price of the aircraft, its performance and the investment that was required to introduce the aircraft into Ethiopian's system.

The Airbus A380, the ever largest passenger aircraft, this week, conducted high altitude test flights in Addis Ababa. The new aircraft, equipped with four engines manufactured by Alliance Engine, and weighing about 560 tons, landed in Addis Ababa last Monday. It flew seven hours directly from Toulouse, France to Addis Ababa.

The A380 crew, which comprises of test pilots, flight engineers and other experts from the European Aviation Safety Agency, conducted several test flights in Addis Ababa in the past four days.

Captain Etienne Tarnowski, head of the crew, said that the particular A380 he commanded was the fifth prototype aircraft. He added that the performance of the aircraft was tested under extreme conditions. "Addis Ababa was selected for the test flight for its high altitude [7,500 feet above sea level] and for its airport facility."

Alemayehu Tekle, general manager of the Ethiopian Airport Enterprise, said that the new runway and taxiway at the airport demonstrated it was of a high standard by accommodating the A380 aircraft. President Girma Woldegiorgis, Seyoum Mesfin, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Junedin Saddo, Minister of Transport and Communication and the ambassadors of Germany, UK, France and Spain and other officials visited the prototype aircraft.

The A380 is a 555-seater aircraft and double decker which consumes three litters of fuel per 100 kms per seat. The number of seats could be increased up to 800 by changing the configuration. The price of the aircraft is 300 million dollars. Airbus spent 10.7 billion dollars on the A380 aircraft development program. So far five A380 prototype aircraft have been manufactured. Four of them are equipped with Rolls-Roce engines.

Mr Hadi Akoum, vice president of customer relations for Africa, said that the A380 has attracted about 200 orders from 16 airlines. Air France, Lufthansa, Singapore, China Southern, China Virgin Atlantic, Emirates and Quatar are some of the airlines that have placed orders for A380. Mr Akoum said so far there was no African airline which had ordered the A380. "We manufacture 13 different aircrafts. We started to sell the aircrafts to Africa in the '70s. We hope to find African airlines who will order the A380," he added.

Three weeks ago airbus informed its A380 customers of a further delay in the delivery schedule of the aircraft. According to the company's revised plan, the first A380 will be delivered in October 2007.

Girma Wake said the A380 was too big for Ethiopia's needs." .At the moment we don't dream to acquire this giant aircraft. But we are grateful to Airbus for picking up Addis for the first test flights in Africa," he added. Airbus will reportedly pay substantial fees to the Ethiopian Airport Enterprise and Ethiopian for the airport facilities and other services they rendered during the test flight. The A380 yesterday, left for the United Arab Emirates. Airbus has so far conducted test flights for the A380 in the UAE, Columbia and Canada. It will also have similar tests in China, South Africa, Egypt, Australia, and India.

Airbus is a European consortium owned by the governments of France, Germany, Spain and the UK. The company was established 30 years ago and is headquartered in Toulouse.

Source: The Reporter