May 2010 covers_Covers.qxd - World Airnews

Also on order are twelve Airbus A350 XWB long range airliners.
greatly extended by tapping into Ethiopian Airlines’
vast African network.
The partnership has also extended to frequent
flyer programmes. ET ‘Sheba Miles’
members have reciprocal earn-and-redeem
privileges on Lufthansa’s “Miles and More”
programme and vice versa.
The sequence of events unfolding leads to
the obvious thought of Ethiopian Airlines and
the Star Alliance. Lufthansa is a founding member
of the airline grouping and ET already
code-shares with other Star members such as
bmi, British Midlands, South African Airways
and Brussels Airlines.
Wake has reportedly said that his airline
hoped to join the alliance in late 2010 or early
2011. This dismisses speculation that the rival
Oneworld alliance was in urgent talks with the
Ethiopian carrier. Oneworld has no Africanbased
partner apart from a few British Airways
franchise operations in Southern Africa.
In the present operating environment,
many of the world’s major international airlines
are scaling back operations and reporting
heavy losses; ET seems to be flying on a different
flight path. Last year, the airline reported
a net profit of US$117-million, the highest ever
recorded in its history.
“One of the yard sticks for success of an airline
is its profitability. The overall performance
of our airline is noteworthy and rewarding considering
the numerous challenges we have to
cope with. Cut throat competition, a global crisis,
escalating operational and capital costs led
by the less than predictable and fluid gyration
of fuel prices, and the shrinking trends of the
market,” Wake stated.
AIRCRAFT DELIVERY
The tragic crash of one of its B737-800s off the
coast of Lebanon in January in which all 90 passengers
and crew perished, overshadows what
should have been an enviable year for
Ethiopian Airlines.
Nevertheless, apart from financial objectives
being on target, this year marks the start
44 WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY 2010.
of the delivery of brand new aircraft. The company
has 45 new aircraft on order, namely 10
B787 Dreamliners, five B777-200LRs, eight
Bombardier Q400s, 12 A350-900s and an additional
order for ten B737-800s.
Wake insists that the diverse types are complementary
to the fleet. He stressed that Addis
Ababa was 8 000 feet above sea level, a situation
that made optimum engine performance
very difficult.
The B777-200LR provided good advantage
with performance; it was the most ideal in
offering the range required to serve long haul
markets efficiently, he said.
Secondly, the airline’s annual growth rate of
20% meant there was a requirement for an aircraft
with a capacity of over 300 passengers. The
current 767-300ERs in the fleet were too small
to accommodate this growth, so the 777s were
selected. The GE90-115B-powered 777-200LR
would be the first to enter service in Africa,
Wake pointed out.
Delay to the B787 Dreamliner has caused
problems, but Ethiopian will still take on all its
orders. It has been reported that the initial
787-8 deliveries to airlines may be overweight.
Even though Ethiopian is “not very happy”
about the overweight situation, the aircraft
would still perform well on mid-range routes
within Africa and to Europe replacing the 757
and 767s. Far East and American operations
will be left to the 777s and A350s, delivery of
the latter is scheduled for 2017.
The original order for the 787 is for eight -
8s and two -9s. However the airline may convert
to more of the -9s if contractual range,
payload and fuel consumption targets for the
-9 are met by Boeing.
Yet another aircraft type making its debut
into the fleet is the Bombardier Q400
NextGen, an order for up to eight aircraft being
valued at US$366-million.
Wake explained his reasons for the Bombardier
purchase: “The 360-knot speed of the
aircraft, low operating costs and its environmental
credentials are the main reasons for
the choice. It has excellent range and payload
capability that will allow us to deploy it on domestic
routes within Ethiopia, as well as regional
routes of up to 1 000 nm from Addis
Ababa.
“The Q400 has exceptional performance in
terms of climb rate, single-engine ceiling and
higher take-off weight, thus greater payload
from hot and high elevation airfields,” he
added
It has been frequently mentioned that the
future prosperity of African commercial aviation
lies with greater cooperation among airlines
on the continent. Despite the slow
progress, some advances are being made.
Ethiopian Airlines and Nigerian Eagle Airlines
are the first two African airlines to sign a
Technical Service Agreement (TSA). This covers
training, maintenance, and resource pooling.
ET will maintain all of Nigeria Eagle’s Boeing
737s, including a host of other opportunities
that will be explored including training of pilots,
cabin crew and engineers.
“We are assisting Nigerian Eagle to maintain
the good standard that it already has. This will
be an imperial benefit to Africa. Technical cooperation
is a two-way thing, and I believe that
we will achieve synergy from this,” Wake said.
The Ethiopian Airlines Aviation Academy is
now an International Air Transport Associationaccredited
training centre with a large multinational
customer base mostly from Africa and the
Middle East. The academy recently took on a 30million
euro loan from the French Development
Bank towards further upgrades in order to cope
with growing training demands.
Traditionally, African airlines have their
maintenance and training done in Europe or
the United States. The Technical Service Agreement
effectively ends Nigerian Eagle’s technical
partnership with British carrier Virgin
Atlantic.
Ethiopian Airlines remains very busy in West
Africa. In a bid to further strengthen regional
partnerships, the company signed a five-year
management contract with new Togolese regional
airline ASKY Airlines. Based in the capital,
Lome, ASKY will develop a West African
hub feeding into the Ethiopian’s global network.
ET has a 25% stake in ASKY.
It is believed a duplicate model in Southern
Africa may be on the cards, “possibly from
Zambia to Mozambique, Botswana and
Malawi,” Wake hinted.
Over the next few years the Ethiopian flag
carrier has set its sights on new territory, with
hopes to gradually launch services to Brazil and
Canada.
Additional points in the USA are likely, and
expansion in the Far East to include cities like
Shanghai and Kuala Lumpur are on the cards
as the next phase of expansion takes shape. Q