Ethiopian Airlines buys new aircraft

ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopian Airlines has signed a multi-million dollar agreement to purchase eight small airplanes to boost its domestic coverage, the airline announced on Saturday.

Under an agreement signed on November 14, eight Bombardier Q400 Turboprop aircraft are scheduled to arrive in the capital Addis Ababa in September 2010 at a cost of 242 million dollars (193.3 million euros), a statement said.

"Following the rapid growth of the Ethiopian economy, we have been experiencing an appreciable rate of growth in market demand on the domestic sector of our services," said Girma Wake, the airline's CEO.

"It has been determined that we require eight to 12 aircraft within the next few years for both the domestic and regional routes operations," he added.

The carrier said it had an option to buy another four, according to the agreement, which could bring the total cost to 366 million dollars (292.4 million euros).

Ethiopian Airlines is one of only a handful of African carriers enjoying a growth in revenue despite the global credit crunch.

The Horn of Africa nation's flagship carrier generated 941 million dollars (743.3 million euros) during the 2007/2008 fiscal year, and is expecting the figure to rise to more than 1.2 billion dollars (948.2 billion euros) for the current year.