Ethiopian Airlines, Ethiopia’s flag carrier, is seeking foreign export agencies to finance its purchase of 12 A350-XWB, Airbus 
aircraft.
The airline has already made the down payment for the purchase of the A350-XWB aircraft and is ready to involve export agencies to finance the remaining amount said Wogayehu Terefe, Manger of Public Relations and Publications with Ethiopian Airlines.
Ethiopian expects to begin financing for the 12 aircraft in 2015 while the first aircraft is scheduled to be delivered in 2017 according to Wogayheyu.
Airbus expects to make the delivery as per the schedule said Linden Birns, Spokesperson for Airbus in Sub-Saharan Africa.It is expected that the purchase of the European Airbus aircraft will attract European financers.
Ethiopian Airlines has an already established a 30 million Euro loan agreement for the upgrade and expansion of its training academy with the Agence Francaise de Development.
It is to be remembered that Ethiopian Airlines signed a deal with Export-Import Bank of the Unites States, estimated at 1.6 billion US dollars, to finance the purchase of 10 Boeing 787-8 and 5 Boeing 777-200LR aircraft as well as General Electric spare engines, in 2010.
A second corporate loan of 40 million US dollars was approved by the African Development Bank to partially finance the purchase of the 5 Boeing 777-200LR aircraft.
Ethiopian was also able to obtain financing from the African Finance Corporation, Citibank, and the Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank.
Source: Capital
