Ethiopian Airlines Group, Africa’s leading Airline, has transported 3.5 Million doses of COVID-19 vaccine from Shanghai to São Paulo, Brazil, via Addis Ababa. The vaccine arrived in Brazil on Thursday, 15 April 2021. So far, Ethiopian Cargo and Logistics Services has transported over 20 Million vaccines to more than 20 countries.

Ethiopian Airlines has beefed up its cargo shipment capacity by reconfiguring its passenger aircraft and introducing new technologies. The airline has become the choice of cargo partners as a result of its agility, capability to store and carry time-sensitive shipments such as pharmaceuticals. It played an exemplary role in the distribution of PPE across the globe which led to the selection of Addis Ababa Bole International Airport as a humanitarian air hub by UN agencies.

Currently, Ethiopian is developing an in-house dry ice manufacturing facility that is capable of producing 9,000kg of ice daily to fulfill the need for additional coolants for vaccines produced by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna that require ultra-cold environment for transport.

Ethiopian Airline Group, the largest Pan-African aviation group, celebrates its 75th anniversary today, April 8, 2021.

Ethiopian made its maiden international flight on April 8, 1946 to Cairo. Since then, the Airline overcame the ups and downs of the aviation industry and the challenges unique to Africa to become Africa’s largest, most profitable and award-winning Aviation Group.

Ethiopian kicks off a yearlong celebration under the theme “Celebrating 75 Years of Excellence”.

Ethiopian Airlines Group CEO Mr. Tewolde GebreMariam said, “As we celebrate 75 years of excellence, we take stock of our accomplishments over three quarters of a century. Among the many firsts introduced by Ethiopian are the first Jet aircraft in Africa, the first East Africa to West Africa scheduled flight, the first airline from the Western Hemisphere to fly to China, the first scheduled service between the capitals of the most populous nations in the world (from New Delhi to Beijing), the first airline in Africa to introduce the B767, B777-200LR, B787(the Dreamliner) and later on the A350 to Africa. Today, our industry faces a serious challenge posed by COVID19. The route we chose to overcome this challenge is to tighten our belt, change the way we do business and be agile. We remain the only commercial airline that hasn’t sought government bailout and didn’t lay off a single employee. I would like to take this opportunity to cement our commitment to sustainable aviation and continue to work with all stakeholders to enhance Africa’s air connectivity. While congratulating all Ethiopian families, I would like to thank our esteemed customers for their strong vote of confidence, their loyalty and support.’’

Today, our industry faces a serious challenge posed by COVID19. The route we chose to overcome this challenge is to tighten our belt, change the way we do business and be agile. We remain the only commercial airline that hasn’t sought government bailout and didn’t lay off a single employee. I would like to take this opportunity to cement our commitment to sustainable aviation and continue to work with all stakeholders to enhance Africa’s air connectivity. While congratulating all Ethiopian families, I would like to thank our esteemed customers for their strong vote of confidence, their loyalty and support.’’

Ethiopian attributes its success to the four pillars of its growth strategy. These pillars are human resource development, modern fleet, infrastructure development and technology. It will continue to focus on these pillars with renewed emphasis on sustainability. It will also continue partnering with other African airlines and governments to create a robust, competitive airline industry in Africa by sharing its technical and management expertise.

Ethiopian Airlines has transported 1,056,000 doses of COVID19 vaccines in a single flight. Ethiopian transported the vaccines in 6 envirotainers from Beijing to Harare via Addis Ababa and arrived in Harare today – March 31, 2021.

Ethiopian has also transported 300,000 vaccines donated by Chinese Government to Ethiopia. The vaccine delivery flight arrived yesterday at Addis Ababa Bole International Airport.

Addis Ababa Bole International Airport has been chosen as a Humanitarian Air Hub for the distribution of medical supplies for Africa.

Ethiopian Airlines marked one year of operations of using passenger aircraft as freighters with this announcement:

On March 25 of last year, Ethiopian Airlines operated its first cargo only service on a passenger aircraft with its Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner.

The flight departed on March 25, 2020 from Addis Ababa to Kinshasa carrying more than 16 tons of much-needed PPE and other shipments inside the cabin and the belly of the aircraft.

Following the sharp decline in passenger number due to the pandemic, Ethiopian swiftly shifted focus to cargo operations and became among the very few pioneers to load cargo on passenger aircraft’s cabin. Immediately afterwards, Ethiopian demonstrated remarkable agility in its response to the increased cargo demand in the wake of the pandemic by reconfiguring 25 passenger aircraft into freighters using its own internal MRO capabilities and distributed the muchneeded Personal Protective Equipment and medical supplies across the globe. A year since its first “Preighter” operation, Ethiopian has operated 5,645 Cargo flights on the cabin of passenger aircraft and transported more than 121,750 tons of cargo across its vast global network. The flights added an immense value to the total of 33,182 flights and 735,869 tons of cargo transported during the period from March 25, 2020 to March 25,2021.

Ethiopian Airlines has announced that it has operated COVID-19 vaccine delivery flights from Mumbai to Addis Ababa and from Beijing to Brazzaville.

Ethiopian transported the first batch of coronavirus vaccines from Mumbai to Addis Ababa on March 6, 2021. The airline continued to play its prominent role in the vaccine distribution and transported the vaccines from Beijing to Brazzaville via Addis Ababa on March 10, 2021. 

Ethiopian Cargo and Logistics Services, the cargo unit of Ethiopian Airlines Group, was instrumental in facilitating the flow of medical supplies including PPE across the globe in support of the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic by deploying its state-of-the-art cargo terminal, which is the largest in Africa with annual capacity of around one million tons and compartmentalized temperature controlled cold storage facilities.  

Equipped with different climate chambers ranging between -23OC to 25OC covering an area of 54,000m2, dedicated cool dollies, dedicated pharma team, lease/handling of Envirotainer & DoKaSCH-TS active containers, real-time temperature monitoring system and fully temperature controlled operation, the Pharma Wing is best suited for handling of pharmaceuticals and all types medical supplies. Additionally, leveraging the naturally air-conditioned weather of its home base Addis Ababa, Ethiopian guarantees safe and seamless cool chain logistics for handling temperature sensitive healthcare products.  

Ethiopian is a major cargo partners of WHO, WFP, donor governments and philanthropists in facilitating the flow of essential medical supplies owing to the massive cargo facility including Pharma Wing, large and dedicated freighters and well trained manpower. 

Ethiopian Airlines aircraft photo gallery:

Ethiopian Airlines aircraft slide show:

https://airlinersgallery.smugmug.com/frame/slideshow?key=bN5wwT&speed=3&transition=fade&autoStart=1&captions=0&navigation=0&playButton=0&randomize=0&transitionSpeed=2

De Havilland Aircraft of Canada Limited has announced the delivery of another two Dash 8-400 aircraft to Ethiopian Airlines, including the airline’s milestone 30th Dash 8-400 aircraft. The 30th aircraft – MSN 4617 – is preparing to depart for Ethiopian’s hub in Addis Ababa, along with aircraft MSN 4615. Ethiopian first welcomed the Dash 8-400 aircraft into its fleet in March 2010.

The fleet of over 155 Dash 8 Series aircraft in Africa includes more than 90 Dash 8-400 aircraft. Worldwide, more than 155 airlines, leasing companies and other organizations have ordered almost 1,300 Dash 8 aircraft.