Ethiopian Receives MD-11 Freighter Aircraft - 31 January, 2009

Ethiopian Airlines has received an MD-11 freighter aircraft, which it bought from the Boeing Corporation based in Seattle, USA. The aircraft was officially received by a technical team of Ethiopian Airlines on January 31, 2009 at Venice, Italy. ET-AML with flight number ET- 9201 ferried from Venice, Italy to Addis Ababa and arrived at Bole International Airport on the same date at 19:00.

The new MD-11 aircraft has a payload capacity of 86 tons, 32 pallets and a volume of 513 cubic meter. This new acquisition will increase the total capacity of the current cargo services of the airline thereby enhancing the newly developed cargo market from Europe and South-East Asia. The aircraft will mainly serve the Ethiopian cargo destinations namely; Liege, Johannesburg, Lagos, Dubai, Hong Kong, Madras and Kinshasa.

Ethiopian has also signed a deal with the Boeing Corporation to receive a second MD-11 freighter aircraft on lease basis with a scheduled delivery in August of this year.

Currently, Ethiopian dedicates two B757-200 and two B747 freighter aircraft for its cargo services in addition to the belly-hold cargo space in its scheduled passenger services.

Ethiopian Airlines’ cargo market has been substantially growing providing air cargo services to/from various points in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. In line with its strategic plan to make Addis Ababa the regional cargo hub and support the growing market, Ethiopian operates from its state-of-the-art cargo terminal which has a capacity to handle 350,000 tons with modern facilities and equipments.

For more information about Ethiopian cargo services, contact Director Cargo Marketing at GebremichaelB@ethiopianairlines.com or Call (+251-11) 517-80-12.

About Ethiopian

In August 2008 Ethiopian won the 2008 Corporate Achievement Award of Aviation & Allied Business for setting the pace and continued contribution towards the growth of African aviation industry.

In addition, Ethiopian is the first African carrier to win the 2008 Brussels Airport Company Award in recognition of its distinguished long haul operations which have been manifested through the development of new routes, new products and close cooperation with Brussels Airport in marketing activities. Ethiopian also scooped the 2008 Best Airline in Africa Award at the African Travel Award in Lagos, Nigeria for its excellent network and convenient connections in Africa.

Ethiopian Airlines, www.ethiopianairlines.com, one of the largest and fastest growing airlines in Africa made its maiden flight to Cairo in 1946. With the recent addition of new flight services to Ouagadougou, Lubumbashi, and Abuja, Ethiopian provides dependable services to 33 cities in Africa and a total of 53 international destinations spread across the globe.