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Ethiopian Airlines, Ethiopia’s flag carrier, will take delivery of the second lot of Bombardier Q400 Next Gen airplane in the last quarter of 2012 it was learned.

The aircraft are expected to arrive between September and December said Esete Yeshitla, Acting Public Relations and Publications Manager with the airline.

The five remaining planes have been upgraded with bigger baggage compartments, seven business class seats, two lavatories and spacious overhead compartments and the ability to furnish hot meals. 

Ethiopia’s year on year inflation rate has dropped for a third month in a row compared to 29.9 pc in April to 25.5 pc in May owing to the ease in food prices, according to the Central Statistics Agency on Tuesday. It has fallen from 36.3 pc in February.

Food inflation declined to 29.2 pc in May from 36 pc in April while non-food inflation remains fixed at 19.6 pc, the Central Statistics Agency said.

Many of the poorest African countries including Ethiopia have been affected by upsurge of oil prices and poor crop harvest which in turn induced double digit inflation rates.

Source: Reuters

Airbus is marketing more Airbus aircraft to Ethiopian Airlines, Ethiopia’s flag carrier it was learned.

The aircraft manufacturer has presented the A330 aircraft for the management team at Ethiopian according to executives with Airbus.

Ethiopian Airlines is in the process of evaluating the aircraft after a technical team from Airbus made a presentation to senior airline officials in November of last year said Crawford Hamilton, Director of the A330 program with Airbus.

The transport authority of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia warns transporters from overloading freight transports above the licensed capacity.

Transporters are required to put a tag notifying of the freight capacity of each truck with reference to the registration before the 9th of June said authority representatives at a meeting held earlier this week.  

The transport authority was forced to take corrective measures because some enterprises are illegally transporting trucks loaded with goods beyond their capacity even though they have been licensed to carry specific weight limits it was said.