Ethiopian Air Lines To Take Delivery Of First AIRBUS

Amidst 70th anniversary celebrations, Ethiopian Airlines is going to take delivery of its first Airbus A350-900 jetliner in May, 2016.



Airbus has confirmed to The Reporter that it will deliver Africa’s first A350-900 (XWB) to Ethiopian Airlines in May in accordance with the original delivery schedule. In an email response to The Reporter Airbus said in November 2015 it has established a dedicated customer support office in Addis Ababa, within Ethiopian Airlines’ premises, which will be staffed with a team of Airbus field service personnel. “They will work closely with Ethiopian Airlines to ensure the smooth entry into service of the A350XWB with the airline, which will be the first operator of the aircraft type in Africa,” Airbus said.



This week Ethiopian brand new A350-900 came out of Airbus’ Final Assembly Line (FAL) in Blagnac Airport, Toulouse, France. According to Airbus, the state-of-the-art jetliner with Ethiopian livery will soon undergo a series of rigorous out door tests before being moved to the cabin completion and equipping center.



Ethiopian Airlines is training its aircraft maintenance technicians and cockpit crew on the A350-900 at the headquarters of Airbus in Toulouse. More than 20 technicians from Ethiopian Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) center were sent to Toulouse in January and they are taking the course since then.



Ethiopian Flight Operations last week sent the first batch of pilots to Toulouse for training on A350XWB. Yohannes Hailemariam (Capt. B777/787), vice president flight operations, told The Reporter that initially the airline would train 14 pilots on A350XWB and the first six have left last week. “We need a total of 100 A350 pilots when the airline received all the 14 A350 jetliners,” Yohannes said. Yoseph Hailu (Capt.), director of flight training, will be the first pilot of the A350 aircraft. Yoseph will be responsible for the A350 fleet.



Airbus is also training the staff of the Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority (ECAA). Wossenyeleh Hunegnaw (Col.), Director general of the ECAA, told The Reporter that Airbus is offering a familiarization training courses to the staff of the authority. “One of our engineers has been trained for one month in Toulouse. And currently, two experts of Airbus are offering a familiarization training course to our professionals drawn from Aircraft Certification and Airworthiness, Operation and Licensing departments. We shall also train pour inspector pilots ,”Wossenyeleh said.



Ethiopian, which has been operating only Boeing fleet on mid and long haul routes for decades, is for the first time to operate a mixed fleet. The national flag carrier first placed 12 firm orders with a least price of 2.9 billion dollars in 2009 direct from Airbus. It also leased two more A350-900 from ILFC (now called AirCap). The first two A350s arriving in May and June this year are leased from AirCap while the remaining 12 will be delivered by Airbus in 2017-2019.



A350XWB is Arbus’ new product that made its maiden flight in June 2013. Powered by the Rolls Royce Trent Engines, the Airbus A350XWB is known for its specious cabin. The new jetliner is a rival of the Boeing B787 Dreamliner aircraft. The A350 family has 800, 900 and 1000 versions with 250-350 seats. Ethiopian’s A350-900 will have 346 seats. Airbus claims that A350 is the most fuel efficient and environment friendly aircraft.



Currently, Ethiopian operates 76 modern aircraft including 13 B787s and plans to double its fleet by 2025.



While Ethiopian is celebrating its 70th anniversary the European consortium, Airbus, will soon be celebrating its 45th anniversary. As part of its 70th anniversary, Ethiopian this week organized group visits for the public to its headquarters. Government officials, members of the diplomatic corps, athletes, artists, media professionals, travel agents, freight forwarders, hotel owners and members of the parliament visited the facilities of the airline at its main hub in Addis Ababa.



Ethiopian was established by Emperor Haile Selassie in 1945 in partnership with a US-based airline Trans World Airlines (TWA). In April 1946 the airline made its maiden flight from Addis Ababa to Cairo via Asmara with a DC3 aircraft purchased from the US Air force. Ethiopian will mark its 70th anniversary with colorful celebrations next month.