Ethiopian Airlines (ET, Addis Ababa International) will bolster its widebody order books later this year the chief executive of the Ethiopian Aviation Holding Group has told Reuters.
Speaking in an interview last week, Tewolde Gebremariam said Ethiopian would place orders this year with Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac) for six more A350s and with Boeing (BOE, Washington National) for thirteen more B787s. The variants and delivery timeframes were not revealed.
In addition, Tewolde has also confirmed the carrier is in talks with Embraer (EMB, São José dos Campos Professor Urbano Ernesto Stumpf) and Bombardier Aerospace (BBA, Montréal Trudeau) over a proposed regional jet order. Having discarded the B737-7, Ethiopian is now considering the C-Series and the E195-E2 for an order which could entail ten firm orders and ten options.
The ch-aviation fleets module shows Ethiopian currently operates eight A350-900s, six B767-300(ER)s, six B777-Fs, four B777-300(ER)s, nineteen B787-8s, and two B787-9s. According to its own records, Ethiopian has sixteen A350-900s due from Airbus alongside six B787-9s and four B777(F)s due from Boeing.
To cope with the airline's unanticipated rapid growth, the Ethiopian government has committed to expanding Addis Ababa International Bole International Airport through the construction of a new passenger terminal as well as additional apron space.
Last month, EAHG disclosed that the first phase of the expansion plan - the East Wing annex - is expected to be operational by the end of June this year.
The CEO of the Ethiopian Airports Enterprise, Tewdros Dawit, later told The Reporter that he expects the entire expansion project to be completed by the end of this year following which Bole will be able to accommodate 22 million passengers per year up from the current 10 million.
According to Tewdros, EAE hopes to resuscitate plans to construct a new megahub airport in Addis Ababa to supercede Bole following the appointment of 41-year-old Abiy Ahmed Ali to the post of Prime Minister in March. As the first Oromo to head the ruling EPRDF coalition in the country's 27-year history, Ahmed's appointment is expected to ease ethnic tensions that have destabilized Ethiopia for the past two years.
“The project is huge," Tewdros told The Reporter. "It will make Ethiopia [the] owner of [a] world-class airport. We have been evaluating suitable places for construction. We have identified five places and almost know which one we should take on. But, it needs the support of all relevant government institutions including the Prime Minister. We had withheld it for the past two years due to the prevailing instability in the country. Now things are looking to be restored to their normalcy. Hence, we hope the new PM will support us to realize this project.”
