Group chief executive Tewolde Gebremariam said passenger numbers grew by 14% during the period, which saw the introduction of 18 new aircraft and six new international destinations: Asmara, Istanbul, Manchester, Mogadishu, Moscow and Jakarta. However, he added the airline was still dealing with the ongoing loss of the 737 Maxs, which were grounded following two fatal crashes of the aircraft, one of which was Ethiopian’s. The airline currently has four of the aircraft grounded, with a further 30 on order. Gebremariam said: “It is affecting our growth for the time being; strategically we believe we should be fine because we will fly the Max when it is ready but in a worst case scenario we’ll have to replace it with similar capacity aircraft.”He added the record passenger numbers meant the airline grew operating revenue by 25% year-on-year to Ethiopian birr 112 billion with net profit at Ethiopian birr 5.3 billion.

Source: Ethiopian News November 04, 2019 15:33 UTC