Ethiopian Airlines and CFM International celebrated their decade long partnership, as the earlier has been CFM’s customer ever since it began flying using CFM56-7B-powered Boeing 737-700 aircraft back in 2003.

The celebration took place on Tuesday, November 4, 2014, in the presence of CFM International’s President and CEO, Jean-Paul Ebanga.

The President commented on the occasion saying, It is an honor to be here today representing the CFM team as we celebrate our relationship with this fantastic airline”. He furthered; "Ethiopian has worked hard to hear its much-deserved reputation for quality. The airline continues to maintain some of the best fleet reliability statistics in the industry and, in 2013, overhauled its first CFM56-7B engine. We are honored to work hand-in-glove with the team to support their 737 fleet today and look forward to introducing the new LEAP engine into this fleet in a few years."

Ethiopian’s Chief Executive Officer, Tewolde Gebremariam, on his part said, "We are very happy to celebrate this 10 years milestone between Ethiopian and CFM partnership. I wish to thank the entire CFM team, management and employees, for the strong support they continue to give us. We have invested about U.S. $ 21 Million to develop the CFM engine overhaul capacity, not just for our fleet but also for those of other African airlines with the view of becoming a preferred CFM engine service facility in the continent.”

Currently Ethiopia flies to five continents serving more than 83 destinations. Its current fleet has reached more than 50 Boeing Airplanes out of which some are 737s, 757s, 767s, 777s, 787 Dreamliners and a cargo fleet which includes 757 and 777 Freighters and MD-
11s.

Source: Ethiopian Airlines Press Release