Ethiopian Airlines (
Amharic ?????? ??? ????, ?????? in short) is an
airline based in
Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia. It is the
national airline of Ethiopia, operating scheduled international passenger and freight services to 50 destinations world-wide, as well as domestic services to 28 destinations and passenger and cargo charter flights. Its main hub is
Bole International Airport, Addis Ababa.
[1]Ethiopian Airlines was founded on December 30, 1945, by Emperor Haile Selassie with assistance from TWA. It commenced operations on April 8, 1946, with a weekly service between Addis Ababa and Cairo with 5 Douglas DC-3 propeller-driven aircraft.[2]
It started long-haul services to Frankfurt in 1958 and inaugurated its first jet service in January 1963 from Addis Ababa to Nairobi. In 1965, it changed from being a corporation to a share company and changed its name from Ethiopian Air Lines to Ethiopian Airlines. It is wholly owned by the government of Ethiopia and has 4,700 employees (at March 2007)[1].
Although it relied on American pilots and technicians at the beginning, by its 25th anniversary in 1971, Ethiopian Airlines was managed and fully staffed by Ethiopian personnel. In 1998, it started transatlantic services. It is one of the few profitable African airlines. The airline was featured by The Economist as an example of excellence in late 1987, [3] and Ethiopianist Paul B. Henze recognized it in 2000 as being "one of the most reliable and profitable airlines in the Third World",[4]
