Ethiopian resumes flights to Djibouti
Saturday, 21 August 2010
By Kaleyesus Bekele
After suspending its daily flight to Djibouti for two weeks, the Ethiopian Airlines resumed Monday its regular flight operations to the neighboring country. The Djiboutian civil aviation authorities recently denied Ethiopian flight operations permit demanding that the airline deploy Boeing jet instead of the turboprop aircraft. Ethiopian has been operating Fokker 50 and more recently the new Bombardier Q400 turboprop aircraft on the Addis Ababa Djibouti route. The Djiboutian authorities have been complaining about the type of aircraft Ethiopian has been flying to Djibouti and requested the airline to use Boeing 737 jets.
However, the management of Ethiopian did not accept the request on the ground that the passenger traffic on the Addis Djibouti route does not necessitate the deployment of B737 aircraft. A senior executive of Ethiopian told The Reporter that the new Q400 turboprop aircraft the airline acquired from the Canadian air framer, Bombardier, last March was sufficient to accommodate the passenger traffic on the Addis Djibouti route adding that Ethiopian has a shortage of regional jets.
The five ageing Fokker aircraft Ethiopian has been operating for more than ten years mainly on domestic routes each have more than 50 seats. Last year, Ethiopian placed firm orders for eight Q400 aircraft with a total value of 290 million dollars and Bombardier had delivered five of them to the airline. The remaining will be arriving by the end of this year. The new Q400 aircraft known for low noise and higher fuel efficiency has more than 70 seats in a single configuration. Ethiopian has five 737-700 and two 737-800 jetliners. The B737 aircraft has more than 150 seats.
After deliberating on the issue, executives of Ethiopian and the Djiboutian authorities reached an agreement that enables Ethiopian to resume its regular flight operations to Djibouti with the modern Q400 aircraft. An Ethiopian executive told The Reporter that the company does not want to disappoint the Djiboutian officials. However, he said their demand was inappropriate. “Djiboutians are our good customers. Besides, they are our neighbors. We will do our best to continue providing them with commendable services but at the moment we can not deploy B737 aircraft on that route. Considering the market demand we may change the type of aircraft we use in the future,” the executive said. Ethiopian suspended the daily flight to the small Red Sea state on August 1.
In a related the news, the management of Ethiopian is in the process of selling the five Fokker 50s. The management ordered the Q400s with the view to replacing the ageing Fokker50s.
Source : The Reporter, Addis Ababa
Bodies found from Ethiopian Airlines crash
By Cal Perry and Nada Husseini, CNN
January 25, 2010
Beirut, Lebanon (CNN) -- British, French and Cypriot aircraft joined rescue crews searching the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Lebanon on Monday where an Ethiopian Airlines flight crashed with 90 people aboard.
By midday Monday, crews had found 23 bodies, but no survivors, the state-run Lebanese National News Agency reported.
Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced a day of mourning for the victims of the crash, ordering all government departments to close, the agency reported. He praised security forces and the Red Cross for their efforts in the aftermath of the accident.
Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409 left Rafik Hariri International Airport in Beirut about 2:30 a.m. and was headed to the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
It disappeared from radar a few minutes after takeoff, said Ghazi El Aridi, Lebanon's minister of public works and transportation.
Authorities did not immediately know the cause of the crash.
"We don't believe that there is any indication for sabotage or foul play," Lebanese President Michel Sulayman said.
The airline said a 14-member team of investigators was at the scene of the accident.
We want to figure out the reasons behind this plane crash and we will be very transparent in informing everyone of what happened," Hariri said.
The Boeing 737-800 had eight crew members and 82 passengers -- 51 Lebanese nationals, 23 Ethiopians, two Britons and citizens from Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Canada, Russia and France, the airline said.
An earlier tally provided by the Lebanese government varied slightly.
Among the passengers was the wife of the French ambassador to Lebanon, said Anne Charlotte of the French embassy.
The plane crashed about 3.5 km (2.1 miles) west of the town of Na'ameh. Na'ameh is 15 km (9 miles) south of Beirut.
As worried family members gathered at the Beirut airport for news, the army and the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon continued to scour the crash site for survivors.
"We hope that we will be able to rescue as many survivors, but the weather conditions are very bad," Sulayman said.
Government-owned Ethiopian Airlines is one of the largest in Africa.
Unlike several African carriers that are not allowed in European air space because of shoddy safety records, Ethiopian Airlines serves Europe. It serves three other continents as well, for a total of 56 destinations.
The airline has such a commendable safety record that some expanding airlines in Asia have lured away its pilots at high pay, The New York Times reported in 2006.
The airline has experienced two fatal crashes since 1980.
In November 1996, a flight bound for Ivory Coast, also known as Cote D'Ivoire, was hijacked by three men who demanded that the pilot fly to Australia. The pilot attempted an emergency landing near the Comoros Islands off Africa as the plane ran out of fuel, but crashed. About 130 of the 172 people aboard died, according to published reports.
And in September 1988, a flight struck a flock of birds during takeoff. During the crash landing that followed, 31 people of the 105 people aboard died.
