Ethiopian boosts 2025 growth with two more A350-900s

This order helps to keep the airline’s growth strategy on track, Mesfin Tasew, Group chief executive of the carrier told African Aerospace at the IATA Annual General Meeting in Delhi.

The first of the A350-900s, which are arriving on finance lease from Novus Aviation Capital, will be delivered from Airbus in June with the second in July, said Tasew. The new aircraft will add to its current fleet of 20 A350-900s

The carrier has been seeking extra widebodies to supplement its fleet and sustain its ambitious growth plans because apart from its final A350-1000 due for delivery in August, it has no factory deliveries due from either Airbus or Boeing until 2028, he explained.

Ethiopian has three A350-1000s in service today out of an order for four of the type.

In addition to the two new A350s, Ethiopian “would love to get more [aircraft], but they are not available,” said Tasew. “Shortage of aircraft is a serious challenge for us now and we are constantly looking because we still need more airplanes.”

In the coming two months Ethiopian will add five more destinations to its expanding network from Addis Ababa, the capital of the East African country.

On 2 June it began a four times weekly service to Sharjah while a route to Hyderabad, beginning on 16 June, will be the carrier’s sixth city served in India.

In addition, Ethiopian Airlines will begin operations to Hanoi and Porto in July, and its co-operative service to Abu Dhabi with Etihad Airways also starts in that month.