The first of the five 777-200LRs Ethiopian Airlines ordered from Boeing last year will arrive at the Addis Ababa Bole International Airport on November 20.
Ethiopian CEO, Girma Wake, told Aviation News that the first B777 will arrive in Addis Ababa on November 20, the second in mid December and the third in mid January. “The deliveries of these aircraft will enhance Ethiopian flight frequencies to North America and Asia,” Wake said. In July 2009, Ethiopian placed five firm orders for five B777 with a total value of $1.3 billion. Ethiopian selected GE engines to power the five jetliners.
Ethiopian plans to use the new aircraft on its flights to the US, to Toronto (the airline will launch new route to Canada next year), China and to Angola. The B777s are known for their higher seat capacity and fuel storage capacity.
For decades, Ethiopian has been a loyal customer of Boeing. Boeing has completely dominated the airline’s long-haul fleet. Ethiopian is the first African carrier to order the B787 Dreamlinner aircraft in 2005. The airline placed ten firm orders for Dreamlinners valued at 1.5 billion dollars. Deliveries of the aircraft were slated for 2008-2010. Ethiopian has 10 B737-800s on its order book.
For the first time last year the European consortium broke the monopoly of Boeing when Ethiopian ordered 12 A350-900 XWBs. Ethiopian is the first carrier in sub-Saharan Africa to order the A350.