Addis Ababa suggests that Ethiopian Airlines will order more of the Airbus A350XWB, though no details are available on the variant the airline might choose.
Ethiopian, in a change from their usual order patterns with Boeing – the airline is one of the American manufacturers longest and largest customer in Africa – did ET order 14 Airbus A350XWB-900’s, the first of which is now on the assembly line, due for delivery between April and June next year. This makes Ethiopian an African launch customer for this latest state of the art aircraft, after two years ago becoming Africa launch customer for Boeing’s B787 Dreamliner.
Alongside a very likely increased order for the A350 is Ethiopian also in discussions with Airbus over at least the establishment of a training base, i.e. the addition of a flight simulator in their aviation academy though there is some level of anticipation that Ethiopian’s MRO will also aim at becoming an Airbus service point in Africa.
It was previously reported here that the Ethiopian flag carrier was mulling over an additional order before the end of the year for more wide body aircraft, as many as 20 were mentioned to this correspondent by a source, but no decision has been made if this will be more Boeing or more Airbus aircraft.
What is clear is that ET will not voluntarily give up the African aviation leadership position but aggressively roll out more destinations and more frequencies, across Africa and into the rest of the world. A significant rise in aircraft numbers will be supported in coming years with the construction of a new airport which will then be the arguably most modern in Africa, facilitating arrivals, departures and most important a sharp rise in transit passengers via Addis Ababa.
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