purchase of 15 passenger jet aircraft from Boeing. The amount of the loan is estimated to be around 1.45 billion dollars.
The airlines placed orders for 10 Dreamliners in 2005 valued at 1.5 billion dollars. Originally, deliveries were scheduled for 2008-2010, which Boeing failed to meet. Now Ethiopian expects to receive the first two of ten Dreamliners next March which it ordered in 2005.
Early this month, the Ethiopian Airlines said 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.
In a related development, the management of the airlines is negotiating with executives of Bombardier for additional aircraft purchase. Currently, Ethiopian owns eight Bombardier
Ethiopian is going to phase out three of its ageing Boeing 757-200 aircraft early next year. The airlines is already negotiating with potential buyers.
Source: The Reporter
