Ethiopian Soaring Amid COVID-19 Pandemic, Says CEO

Addis Ababa, February 18/2021(ENA)The measures taken by Ethiopian Airlines over the past 10 years to develop internal capacity that suits to tackle any kind of challenge has enabled the company to register success despite the predicaments due to COVID-19, Group CEO Tewolde said.

In an interview with e-TurboNews, a global Travel News online media, Tewolde discussed in depth about the effects of COVID-19, the current situation, and the way forward for Ethiopian.

According to him, though several airlines across the globe have been facing challenges due to restrictions posed by countries on the aviation business with a view to containing the spread of COVID-19 pandemic, Ethiopian Airlines has survived the challenges due to its strong internal capacity that enabled it to divert its business to cargo fright.

Realizing this reality, the airline made very good and quick decision to build as much capacity as possible on cargo business, the CEO added.

“We already have 12 airplanes, seven dedicated freighters and 27, 37 freighters. But we have also makeshift this passenger airplanes to cargo by removing the seats. We did this on about 25 airplanes. That was a significant capacity increase on our cargo at the right time,” Tewolde said.

According to him, the revenue and demand for cargo freight was very high and “ we took advantage of the opportunity at the right time. So, we’ve shown agility, speed of decision-making, resilience that has helped us.”  

Tewolde further stated that Ethiopian has a very strong cash flow and it is still managing its own cash flow within its internal resources, without any bail out money or without any borrowing for liquidity purposes, and without any layoff or any salary reduction.