Ethiopian Airlines (Ethiopian) is the fastest growing and most profitable airline in Africa. In 2014, IATA ranked Ethiopian as the largest airline in Africa in revenue and profit is significantly expanding business with Irish aviation suppliers in aircraft leasing, digital marketing and recruitment.

On 10th May Ethiopian moved it’s European Technical Transit hub for 10 weekly flights from Rome Fiumicino to Dublin with a daily Boeing 777 flight from Addis Ababa to Washington DC and three times weekly Boeing 787 Dreamliner flight from Addis Ababa to Toronto.

The airline commenced fifth freedom right services between Addis Abba, Dublin and Los Angeles on 19th June three times weekly using Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft, connecting three continents, the addition of Dublin, the airline’s 11th European city and Los Angeles, its 4th point in the Americas.

Additional Ethiopian is using Dublin Airport as a transit stop for new Boeing 737-800 deliveries from the United States and for end of lease returns to lessors for Boeing 767-300ER and MD11F aircraft.

Ethiopian has a strong relationship here with aircraft lessors AerCap, AWAS, GECAS leasing Boeing 787 Dreamliners, Boeing 737-800 and Boeing 757-200 and Boeing 777-300ER aircraft.

In 2014 Ethiopian concluded an agreement with Dublin based aircraft lessor AWAS to purchase three new Boeing 737-800 delivered this Summer that the airline had previously ordered directly from the manufacturer, and then leased them back. As part of this agreement, AWAS also assisted Ethiopian with the fleet transition of two 767-300ER wide-body passenger aircraft.

The two Boeing 767-300ER aircraft where prepared for re-delivery to new lessees at Shannon Airport by Eirtech Aviation and Lufthansa Technik.

Aviation recruitment specialist CAE Parc Aviation is contracted to source flight crew for Ethiopian, next year a further eight aircraft will join it’s fleet adding two Boeing 777F and six Boeing 787 Dreamliners.

In early August Ethiopian appointed Dublin-based company SynNeo to manage its marketing, public relations and social media. Carole Smith of SynNeo said “With the recent launch of the direct Boeing Dreamliner service from Dublin to Los Angeles and Dublin to Addis Ababa, along with plans to double their fleet by 2025, it is an exciting time to be working with Ethiopian and one I am truly looking forward to.”

Irish Aviation Research Institute © 19th August 2015 All Rights Reserved.