Ethiopia’s flag carrier, Ethiopian Airlines, will take delivery of Airbus A350-900 jetliner by May 2016, for the company’s 70th anniversary celebration.

The jetliner is going to be the first of its kind in Africa. Commenting on the development, Airbus said there was an established customer support in Ethiopians’ premises which will work closely with Ethiopian Airlines to ensure the smooth entry into service of the A350XWB with the airline.

New A350-900 Airbus has come out of Airbus’ Final Assembly Line in Blagnac Airport, Toulouse, France. The jetliner will soon go under rigorous outdoor tests before being moved to the cabin completion and equipping center.

Ethiopian Airlines' aircraft maintenance technicians and cockpit crew on the A350-900 are taking trainings at Airbus’ headquarters in Toulouse. In January the airline sent 20 technicians from Ethiopian Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) center to Toulouse.

Out of the total 14 pilots to whom the training would be given, the airline has already sent 6 pilots to Toulouse for training, Yohannes Hailemariam (Capt. B777/787), vice president flight operations, explained.

According to Wossenyeleh Hunegnaw (Col.), Airbus is also training personnel from the Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority (ECAA). According to him, Airbus is familiarizing the ECCA’s staff and it has already trained one engineer. Two experts on the other hand are giving familiarization training course to ECCA’s professionals from Aircraft Certification and Airworthiness, Operation and Licensing departments.

For decades, Ethiopian operated only Boeing fleets for mid and long haul routes. However, in 2009 it made 12 firm orders from Airbus. It also leased 2 A350-900 from AirCap.

In order to fly the total 14 Airbuses, Ethiopian will need 100 A350 pilots, Yohannes explained.

Source: The Reporter