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Ethiopian Airlines invests big to match growth

By Kirubel Tadesse

Ethiopian Airlines is making huge investments to double its fleet in an effort to match its strong growth, despite the aviation industry continuing to lose billions of dollars in the wake of the global economic downturn.
Ethiopian, which pocketed an all time record net profit of over 1.3 billion birr last year, registering a staggering 165 percent increase from the previous year, is enjoying consistent growth in traffic and also in operating revenues, which rose by nearly 33 percent last year.

The airline is currently operating 36 aircraft, but already has another 35 new planes on order direct from the manufacturers, including the latest orders of five Boeing 777s.
Late last week, Ethiopian CEO Girma Wake inked a contract for the purchase of 12 Airbus A350-XWBs aircraft, sealing an agreement reached back in July, which marked an end to the airline exclusively operating Boeings.

"We are committed to investing in industry leading technology to maintain our unrivalled reputation in Africa whilst continuing to grow," Girma said in a statement released when he signed the contract at Dubai Air show last week.