The Ethiopian Airlines announced last week that it was concluding a deal with Boeing for the purchase of four Boeing 777 freighter aircraft.

A senior official of the airlines said that the management of Ethiopian and executives of Boeing had been negotiating for about a year for the purchase of the new aircraft. The deal will be announced soon according to the official.

The new deal was confirmed by a representative of Boeing who said that Boeing and Ethiopian would sign the agreement in the coming few weeks.

Ethiopian has to order new B777 freighter aircraft because of the rising demand for cargo flight services. The airlines signed a lease agreement with GECAS recently for two B777 aircraft to be delivered in September 2012.

The B777 freighter aircraft has the capacity to haul 100 tons of cargo at a time. The catalogue price of the aircraft is 260 million dollars. Boeing is scheduled to deliver the four aircraft after three years.

With six freighter aircraft (two B757-200F, two B747s and two MD 11s) Ethiopian has the largest cargo fleet in Africa. When the two leased B777 arrive, Ethiopian will sell one of the MD 11 it owns and return the other leased MD11. And following the delivery of the first two B777 in three years Ethiopian will return the two leased B747s to Southern Air, the American leasing company.

Last fiscal year, Ethiopian cargo traffic grew by 20 percent to 160,000 tons when compared to the previous fiscal year. The growth in cargo traffic is attributed to the growth in horticulture and meat exports.

Source: The Reporter