Ethiopian Airlines Make More Profit Than All Other African Carriers Combined

Ethiopian Airlines’ $175 million profit for the 2014/15 fiscal year it announced at the end of last week is more than what the rest of Africa’s airline industry posted over the same period.

Tewolde Gebremariam, Ethiopian Airlines chief executive, said the airline, which has been the most profitable in Africa for a couple of years now, exceeded its revenue and profit targets for the fiscal year.

“We had planned for 43 billion birr by 2015, but in the last fiscal year closed at about 49.4 billion birr in revenue. The same with profitability,” Gebremariam told CCTV Africa.

The state-owned carrier said it plans to increased it fleet to 140 planes by 2025 when it expects to be generating over $10 billion on annual revenue. At the moment it has 76 planes and recently announced plans to increase this by 60 percent by buying 44 new aircrafts.

While other major African airlines, including Kenya Airways and South African Airways, fall deeper into loses, Ethiopian Airlines has grown its revenue and expanded its routes to become the most networked carrier on the continent.

Collectively, Other African Airlines are expected to post a profit of barely $100 million the lowest of all regions, according to the International Air Transport Industry Association (Iata). They are also expected to see the slowest growth among developing markets with capacity and demand expansion of 3.3 percent and 3.2 percent respectively this year.