Unlike many airlines the Ethiopian Airlines has attested its competitiveness and profitability for years. In the turbulent aviation industry the Ethiopian Airlines is standing out as a champion carrier maintaining the leading position in the continent. It is expanding its domestic and international destinations spanning across all continents.
It currently serves over 95 international and 21 domestic destinations operating the newest and youngest fleet. According to the recent information, Ethiopian is a multi-award winning airlines registering an average growth of 25 per cent in the past seven years. Ethiopian, over the past seventy plus years, has become one of the continent’s leading carriers, unrivalled in Africa for efficiency and operational success, turning profits for almost all the years of its existence.
The reputation of Ethiopian is not only with its passengers’ services but also the cargo services. It is taking bold steps to further enhance the cargo services and increase its market share thereby realizing one of the aspirations of AU – economic integration.
As part of this effort, last Thursday the Ethiopian Airlines has inaugurated a new cargo terminal with the state of the art facility at a cost of 150 million USD. The second cargo has the capacity of 600,000 tonnage annually which positioned the national flag carrier at the top in the continent in terms of cargo services.
The newly built cargo will enable Ethiopian to increase the daily 3,000 tonnage by threefold. The new Cargo Terminal-II combined with the existing Terminal-I will boost the total tonnage capacity of Ethiopian Airlines around one million per annum.
It is vividly demonstrate that the massive investments in infrastructure projects to modernize and expand the cargo facilities are a far sighted commitment of the government in sustaining fast and profitable growth.
The facility includes dry and perishable cargo terminals, fully automated elevating transport vehicle, among others. It is also fitted with different climate chambers for storage and handling of temperature sensitive products such as fresh agricultural products and pharmaceuticals.
This would make Ethiopian Cargo and Logistics Services to be one of the world’s largest cargo terminals. The new terminal along with the eight modern freighters will create adequate air cargo transporting capacity for the fast growing export and import demand of the continent. It is truly a dedicated airline for the awakening African economy.
Ethiopian Cargo and Logistics Services operates eight freighters to 39 global freighter destinations in Africa, the Gulf, Middle East, Asia and Europe with an average daily uplift capacity of 650 tons on top of the belly hold capacity of 150 tons to over 95 destinations globally. The airline continues to profitably grow its global freighter service, linking trade routes between Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.As an expression of its stern commitment for being an arm for African import and export advancement, Ethiopian Airlines had announced to purchase two 777 Freighters at the recent 2017 Paris Air Show at a cost of 651.4 million USD.
Having the largest cargo terminals with the new generation, high-performance aircraft reflects the commitment in expanding and supporting the exponentially growing imports and exports of the country in particular and the African continent in general.
Operating at the forefront of technology, the airline has also become one of Ethiopia’s major industries and a veritable institution in Africa. Ethiopian is the first airline in Africa to own and operate 777-200 Freighter aircraft.
Ethiopian Group CEO Tewolde Gebre-Mariam was reiterating that Ethiopian Airlines is the largest airline in Africa and has been successful in serving the continent and the world while addressing the second International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) meeting on air cargo development held here recently.
Though the aviation industry is crucial for socio-economic development of the African continent, it is facing daunting challenges that is almost killing the air transport industry in Africa.
It is within this context, the Ethiopian Airlines is operating and winning the recognition of the international acknowledgements in the aviation industry. For instance, Ethiopian has recently won ‘Cargo Airline Award for Network Development” and ‘African Cargo Airline of the Year’ for its cargo and logistics services.
The Ethiopian Cargo Services is the second largest Strategic Business Unit in the Ethiopian Airlines Aviation Group realizing its vision to lead the continent with the largest and efficient air cargo network of connectivity with Europe, North America, ME, and Asia for African exports and imports.
The trust and the good will that Ethiopian Airlines has built has not only been for Ethiopia but also for Africa since it has been pioneering African cargo by introducing the latest technology and fostering the growth of air cargo transport by providing convenient cargo import and export.
Ethiopian cargo is one of the seven business centres set to become the leading aviation group in Africa in the 15-year strategic plan called Vision 2025. Certainly, the cargo service is the real time concern not for only Ethiopia but also for Africa as it is catalysing the economic integration of Africa.
