Following a promotional tour of Airbus's A350 testbed F-WWCF (cn 2) in Addis Ababa International last week, CEO Tewolde Gebremariam has said his airline is set to order more A350s from Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac).
Speaking to Reuters, Tewolde said a new order for "at least" ten A350s would be placed in the next two years.
"We haven't been able to quantify the right numbers but definitely we are going to order more. At least more than ten," he said.
Ethiopian Airlines (ET, Addis Ababa International) currently has twelve A350-900s on order from Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac) with an additional two to arrive on lease from AerCap. The first of the jets is due to arrive in May next year with the rest to see expedited delivery between 2016/17 though this is dependent on the outcome of talks with European manufacturer.
The Star Alliance member has relied almost exclusively on Boeing (BOE, Washington National) for its widebody needs since its inception in 1946. It was, however, to have trialled Airbus widebody aircraft on its first transatlantic flights to Washington Dulles back in 1998 with the 3-year lease of an ex-Gulf Air A340-300. The deal, however, never came into being.
