Ethiopian Airlines Records Highest Profit

Tewolde Gebremariam
Ethiopian Airlines (ET), the largest airline in Africa, made a profit of $175 million for the 2014/15 fiscal year.

The profit, which exceeded the airline’s revenue target, is more than the profit recorded by the rest of the operators in Africa’s airline industry over the same period.

Tewolde Gebremariam, Ethiopian Airlines Chief Executive, in his remarks, said the airline, which has been the most profitable in Africa for a couple of years now, exceeded its revenue and profit targets for the fiscal year.

'We had planned for 43 billion birr by 2015, but the last fiscal year closed at about 49.4 billion birr in revenue. The same with profitability,' he said.

Mr Gebremariam disclosed that Ethiopian Airlines plans to increase its fleet to 140 planes by 2025 when it expects to generate over $10 billion in annual revenue.

'At the moment, the airline has 76 planes and recently announced plans to increase this by 60 percent by buying 44 new aircraft.

'While other major African airlines, including Kenya Airways and South African Airways, fall deeper into loses, Ethiopian Airlines has grown its revenue and expanded its routes to become the most networked carrier on the continent,' he said.

Collectively, other African airlines are expected to post a profit of barely $100 million, the lowest of all regions, according to the International Air Transport Industry Association (IATA).

They are also expected to see the slowest growth among developing markets with capacity and demand expansion of 3.3 percent and 3.2 percent respectively, this year.

By Cephas Larbi
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