ET Selling Eight Aircrafts amid Stringent EU Regulations
Tigrai Online
May 17 2011
Ethiopian Airlines (ET) announced this week that it is selling off five Fokker 50 and three of its decommissioned Boeing 757-200ER aircraft in a bid to expand the carrier’s revenues base as well as adhere to the stringent guidelines set by European regulators.
On April 20, 2011, 269 carriers from 23 countries (including 151 carriers from 15 African countries) were banned from European airspace by the European Union (EU), which cited air safety concerns for the decision.
Concerns over the safety of African carriers had been raised by the EU recently due to what it called frequent crashes and the use of older aircraft.
Since the airline made a deal with Bombardier, the Canadian aircraft manufacturer, in November 2008, to purchase eight Bombardier Q400 NextGen turboprop aircraft for 242 million dollars, ET has gradually been replacing the 54-seater Fokker 50s. Earlier this year, the airline announced that it was putting up the aircraft for sale and invited interested parties to initiate negotiations.
“The airline is already conducting direct negotiations with several domestic and foreign potential buyers to sell off these aircraft,” said Henok Tefera, an official at Ethiopian, following his presentation of ET’s nine-month report to Parliament’s Transport Affairs Standing Committee on Monday, May 9, 2011.