Ethiopian Airlines Plans to buy 10 Airbus A350s Worth $3 Billion

Tigrai Online, June 19, 2017

According to many news sources Ethiopian Airlines is planning to buy 10 Airbus SE’s newest A350 wide-body jets in a transaction worth more than $3 billion at advertised prices, according to people familiar with the plan.

The deal is set to be announced this week at the Paris Air Show, according to the people, who asked not to be named as the order negotiations are private. Ethiopian will take the mid-sized A350-900 version of the plane, which has a list price of $311 million, according to one person.

Ethiopian Airlines which is Sub-Saharan Africa’s largest carrier already has an order for 12 -900 variants, though it has also been looking at the stretched -1000, as well as Boeing Co.’s rival 777-8, Chief Executive Officer Tewolde Gebre Mariam said last year.

Ethiopian Airlines won the 2017 African Aviation African Airline of the Year Award for the second year in a row, during the in Johannesburg, South Africa this month. Ethiopian Airlines is one of the most successful Ethiopian companies in Ethiopia.

Ethiopian Airlines was the first African and the second in the world to buy and deploy the cutting adage Boeing 787 dreamliner and it owns about 18 of them. The Airlines employs over ten thousand people and fly to over 113 destinations.