Ethiopian Airlines new Boeing 777 plane to arrive on November 20

By Kaleyesus Bekele (The Reporter)

The first of the five Boeing 777-200LRs Ethiopian Airlines ordered from Boeing last year will arrive at the Addis Ababa Bole International Airport on November 20.

Ethiopian CEo, Girma Wake, told The Reporter that the first B777 will arrive at Addis Ababa on November 20, the second in mid December and the third in mid January. “The deliveries of these aircraft will enhance Ethiopian's flight frequencies to North America and Asia,” Girma said. In July 2009, the airline placed five firm orders for five B777 with a total value of USD 1.3 billion. It selected GE engines to power the five jetliners.

Ethiopian plans to use the new aircraft on its flights to the US, Toronto (the airline will launch a new route to Canada next year), China and Angola. The B777s are known for their bigger seat capacity and fuel storage capacity.

Ethiopian has been a loyal customer of Boeing for decades. Boeing has completely dominated the company's long haul fleet. Ethiopian was the first African carrier to order the B787 Dreamlinner aircraft in 2005. The airline placed ten firm orders for Dreamlinners valued at USD 1.5 billion. Deliveries of the Dreamlinners were slated for 2008-2010. It has 10 B737-800s on its order book.

For the first time last year the European consortium broke the monopoly of Boeing when Ethiopian ordered 12 A350-900 XWBs.

Ethiopian is the first carrier in sub-Saharan Africa to order the A350.

Source: EthiopianReporter