An Ethiopian Airbus A350-900XWB. (Photo: AirlineGeeks | William Derrickson)
Though unaudited, Ethiopian Airlines (Ethiopian) posted strong half-year financial returns in the current fiscal year with Public Enterprises Agency, reporting a $260 million in profit for the 2019-2020 year. $2.1 billion recorded in revenues made it the second most profitable state-owned corporation in Ethiopia.
The airline also foresees a gross profit of $696 million at the close of 2019-2020 fiscal year which will be closing in July 2020. During the previous financial year, the Addis Ababa-based airline recorded $260 million profit with $3.9 billion in operating revenues for the 2019 full-year returns. The same operating profit is to be recorded during the current half-year results with the company’s CEO Tewolde GebreMariam remarking 2018-2019 as “their toughest year.”
Ethiopian also boasts the largest cargo terminal in Africa that can handle close to one million metric tonnes of cargo in the region and offers cargo services to 57 destinations in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, North America, Latin America and Europe. 2018-2019 cargo services were recorded at 432,417 metric tonnes.
The Star Alliance member has also won the International Air Cargo Marketer of the year award in the recently concluded STAT International Award for Excellence in Mumbai, India, for its contribution to the air cargo industry.
The African airline whose main hub is Bole International Airport was recently subject to criticism in the continent for continued flights to and from China which led to cuts in its weekly flights to China by 33 percent. Moreover, Ethiopian will not be looking to cut its entire flights to China with the group CEO remarking, “It will not be morally acceptable to stop flying to China today because they have a temporary problem,” GebreMariam told reporters according to the BBC. “We stand with our Chinese brothers and sisters,” continued the group CEO.
Apart from serving a historical 12 million flyers in 2019, Ethiopian earlier in the year announced the construction of a $5 billion airport project that will accommodate approximately 100 million passengers with the current Bole International Airport only able to accommodate 19 million passengers. The construction is set to start in the course of the year on the outskirts of Addis Ababa.
Ethiopian is among the leading airlines in the African continent operating the youngest and most modern fleet to 127 international destinations across five continents. It is an award-winning airline with an average growth of 25 percent in the past seven years. Vision 2025 is the airlines’ guide in achieving its goal of becoming a $200 billion company with over 200 aircraft.
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