Ethiopian Airlines remains a “very strong brand” although the financial impact on the airline of the crash of one of its Boeing 737 MAXs and the subsequent grounding of the MAX is not yet known, the carrier’s chief said.
Speaking to ATW on the sidelines of the IATA AGM in Seoul June 2, Ethiopian Airlines group CEO Tewolde Gebremariam said, “Our brand is still very strong. But so far we have not calculated all of the [financial] effects, including having our four remaining737 MAXs grounded,” he said.
Ethiopian Airlines ET302 crashed shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa March 10 and all 157 people onboard were killed.
Gebremariam also said the airline had not yet formed a plan for how it will reintroduce the MAX to operations after the grounding is lifted.
“As we have said, Ethiopian Airlines will be the last airline to bring the MAX back into service. That’s because we have to do a lot of analyses and evaluations on our own and then we will decide,” he said.
“We trust Boeing and the regulators and we are working with them, but in our case, it is more than that because we suffered a tragic accident,” he pointed out.
Gebremariam also emphasized that the company’s long-time relationship with Boeing remained strong and it was not looking for alternative aircraft suppliers. The airline is taking delivery of Airbus A350 XWBs that it ordered long before the crash.
“We had been very busy handling the aftermath of the accident. We do not have time to look into other aircraft models. Ethiopian will continue to operate 737-800s,” he said.
“We are adding Houston [Texas] and looking to add more points in the US as well as China and Europe,” he said.
source:ATW
