Africa’s largest airline Ethiopian Airlines in-service fleet has inched closer to surpassing the 150 milestone following the arrival of the coveted A350-1000 aircraft.
Ethiopian Airlines became the first airline in Africa to own the brand new aircraft in Africa when the new plane touched down at Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa in the first week of November 2024.
According to the chief executive officer of the Ethiopian Airlines Mesfin Tasew, Ethiopian Airlines in-service fleet is set for more growth with 124 new planes already on order and pending delivery from both Airbus and Boeing.
Strikingly , the growth of the airline’s fleet has been in tandem with the growth of the airline’s revenue.
For instance, in the 2023-2024 financial that ended in the first week of July, annual revenue grew to USD7.02 billion. This revenue growth was equivalent to a 14 per cent increase from the previous 2022-2023 financial year.
During the financial year under review, Ethiopian Airlines transported 754,681 tonnes of cargo.
The airline which is currently the largest airline in Africa flew 577,746 hours during the period under review. This was equivalent to a 19 per cent increase compared to its total flight hours reported during the previous year.
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At the same time, the Ethiopian Airlines moved 17.1 million passengers in the 2023-2024 financial year ended June 2024.
This was an increase of 23 per cent and it included 13.4 million international travelers. In the current 2024-2025 financial year that started in July, the airline is expecting to carry over 20 million passengers.
Since the release of the results in July, the airline has added new routes including Bangladesh and routes out of Kigali, Rwanda to over 140 destinations.
The airline commenced its new passenger service to Dhaka, Bangladesh on November 2, 2024.
The growing fleet at the airline is expected to align with plans for the construction of what is set to become Africa’s largest airport with a capacity for up to 100 million passengers per year.
