• Friday, March 29, 2024
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Ethiopian Airlines reels out plans to ease aircraft shortage over Boeing 737 MAX grounding

Ethiopian Airlines

Ethiopian Airlines says it is considering all options to mitigate aircraft shortage it may face during the period the Boeing 737 aircraft will remain grounded.
The airline notes that with its ownership of over 110 operating aircraft, it reviews its fleet plan and swap capacity to optimise aircraft utilisation, adding that June to September is peak season in its operation, so it is considering all options to mitigate aircraft shortage the airline may face during this period.

Recalled that the 737 MAX, grounded globally in March after a crash in Ethiopia killed all 157 people on board, the model’s second deadly crash in five months, was the most sold model with 5,011 firm orders and 375 aircraft delivered.
The airline had five operating Boeing 737 Max aircraft on its fleet before the aircraft was grounded.
During a recent interview with Nigerian journalists in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Haliu Esayas, the managing Director, Ethiopian International Services, said fortunately, the accident did not have much negative impact on the airline’s fleet utilisation and its load factor mainly due to two reasons.

The first reason is because of the continued trust and confidence among the travelling public on the airline’s safety standard and the second reason is that March to May was slack season in its operations, so Ethiopian Airlines could manage with the available fleet in its possession.
The airline will be the last to resume Boeing 737 MAX aircraft operations, he said, adding that there is a problem with the design of the flight control system of the B737 MAX and its redesign is under review by regulatory bodies and stakeholders.
While the airline cannot comment on the resumption of operation of the fleet type, if it will resume operating the B737 MAX, Ethiopian Airline will be the last airline to do so, he said.

The success of the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) is the key to reducing the dominance of international mega carriers, which have 80 percent of the African travel market.
Africa has only 3 percent of the global air travel market and 80 percent of that market is dominated by international carriers, leaving African carriers with only 20 percent.
He said the full implementation of SSATM would free the market from mega carriers, as the treaty guarantees access to African airlines to all signatory nations.

“When Single African Transport management which is advocated by African Union commission, when that one comes people think that only a few airlines will benefit from that, No! As we are speaking 80 percent of African traffic is taken by non Africans, so all of us put together we have only 20 percent so we need to attack that 80 percent.

“We need to eclipse, 80 percent should be African airlines and 20 percent should be non African airlines. This is our continent, that is our traffic and so for more African countries to come, the traffic, which is not in the hands of the African airlines is much more. So we have a lot more to play with, it’s not as if we have to scramble that same 20 percent. No! We don’t settle for that and we want to contribute more than 3 percent of the global air traffic which we are doing now, it’s only three percent.”
He said that it is in the bid to make such major contribution that Ethiopia Airlines is going to every African country and helping to establish regional national carriers.

He argued that if the SAATM is allowed the opportunity, one of its benefits would be to redistribute wealth by reducing capital flight from Africa to non African countries.
“All this effort is for African airlines to grow thrive and dominate the 80 per cent of the market so that employment, taxes, revenue, opportunity the capital sinks in the African continent and does not fly away,” he said.