Ethiopian Airlines - History

History

After the liberation of Ethiopia from the Italian occupation, Ethiopia's Emperor Haile Selassie I asked the Americans, British and French to assist him in establishing a new airline, in an attempt to modernise the country. According to the BBC News, some say the Emperor envisioned the creation of a quality national airline to shake off the poverty-stricken image Ethiopia had at that time. Americans believed the country could become an important hub for air traffic into the Red Sea region and its surroundings, and agreed to help the Emperor.

The carrier was eventually founded as Ethiopian Air Lines on 21 December 1945, with aid from both Transcontinental Air Transport and Western Air Express, which later merged into TWA. The airline relied upon American pilots, technicians, administrators and accountants; it even had TWA General Managers. On its 25th anniversary in 1971, the company was ready to continue without foreign assistance. Since then, Ethiopian Airlines has been managed and staffed by Ethiopian personnel. The first Ethiopian General Manager was Col. Semret Medhane, who served in this position for the period 1971-1975.

The new airline commenced operations on 8 April 1946. Its maiden flight operated the Addis Ababa–Asmara–Cairo route using one of the five Douglas C-47 Skytrains acquired from the US Government. This route was later operated on a weekly basis. The Skytrains were initially intended for military use. Ethiopian operated them in a mixed passenger-cargo configuration. It was therefore a common practice for the company to accommodate both passengers and cargo in the same cabin during the early years.

Soon afterwards, the carrier launched services to Aden and Djibouti, as well as a domestic flight to Jimma. By the end of 1946, four Skytrains were incorporated into the fleet, and three more in 1947 to operate new international routes. Bombay, Nairobi and Port Sudan were added to the route network as international scheduled services in the late 1940s. Likewise, the company started operating charter flights to Jeddah during the Hajj season.

In 1950, a US$1,000,000 ($9,659,751 in 2012) loan granted from the Ex-Im Bank enabled the carrier to incorporate Convair CV-240s, aimed at operating international routes; starting January 1951 (1951-01), these aircraft were deployed on the Addis Ababa–Cairo, Addis Ababa–Nairobi, and Addis Ababa–Jeddah–Dhahran–Karachi routes. In April 1952 (1952-04), the airline was appointed general sales agent for TWA in Kenya, Tanganyka, Uganda and Zanzibar, and by May the same year the fleet consisted of two Convair-Liner 240s and nine Douglas DC-3s or their subtypes, operating a route network 7,000 miles (11,000 km) long. In early 1957, another GB£8,5 million loan, obtained from the Ex-Im Bank in 1955, was partly used to acquire Douglas DC-6Bs. The same year, Ethiopian inaugurated a self-owned maintenance facility. In 1958, Athens was added to the route network, followed by the long-haul route to Frankfurt that was served with the newly delivered DC-6Bs.

In the early 1960s the airline added Accra, Khartoum and Monrovia to its destination network, becoming the first airline linking East and West Africa through direct flights. It was also decided to build a new airport to replace the Lideta Airfield, unable to accommodate the Boeing 720 jetliner the company intended to acquire. This was the birth of Bole International Airport, where the company set its headquarters.

The first jet services were inaugurated in 1963, operating the Addis Ababa–Nairobi route, followed by a new scheduled service to Madrid via Asmara and Athens. The firm changed from a corporation to a share company in 1965, and changed its name from Ethiopian Air Lines to Ethiopian Airlines. Also in the early 1960s, the carrier provided some initial aviation support to the Ethiopia-United States Mapping Mission in its operation to acquire topographic maps of Ethiopia.

Two Boeing 720Bs were acquired from Continental Airlines in 1973. In 1975, the carrier ordered five Dash 7s. The airline became a new customer for the Boeing 727 in 1978, when and order for two of these aircraft was placed. The 727s arrived in the late 1970s as a replacement for the oldest Boeing 720s.

The DHC-5 Buffalo entered Ethiopian's fleet in the early 1980s. In 1982, Ethiopian became the first African carrier in ordering the Boeing 767, as well as the first airline to order the Boeing 767-200ER. On 1 June 1984, the first of these aircraft set a new distance record for a twinjet, flying 7,500 miles (12,100 km) non-stop from Washington, D.C. to Addis Ababa, on delivery to the company. The Boeing 767-200ERs came to replace the remaining Boeing 720s. ATR-42s and Twin Otters were incorporated into the fleet in the mid-1980s, with the first of six Twin Otters entering the fleet in early 1985. The Boeing 737-200 joined the fleet in late 1987.

In 1990, Ethiopian became the first passenger airline in taking delivery of the Boeing 757 Freighter, receiving the first of five Boeing 757-200s a year later. By 1996 the airline was flying to Bangkok, Beijing, Durban and Johannesburg; routes to Ivory Coast and Senegal were also being operated. Furthermore, the Fokker 50 entered the fleet to operate domestic routes; actually, Ethiopian became the last company in taking delivery of this aircraft in 1997, just after the collapse of Fokker due to financial problems. In the late 1990s the carrier saw the incorporation of Copenhagen and Maputo to its international network, as well as New York and Washington as transatlantic destinations; the frequent flyer programme, named "Sheba Miles" after the legendary Queen of Sheba, was launched too. In 1998, the airline disrupted their flights to the Eritrean capital Asmara after a war erupted between the two countries.

A fleet renewal started in the early 2000s, with the incorporation of the Boeing 737-700 and the Boeing 767-300ER; in the late 2000s the airline announced it would be the launch customer of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, and placed orders to acquire brand new Airbus A350-900s, Boeing 777-200LRs and Bombardier equipment.

In late September 2010 (2010-09), Ethiopian Airlines was officially invited to join Star Alliance under the mentoring of Lufthansa. The carrier became a member of the alliance in December 2011 (2011-12), the third Africa-based carrier in doing so—following EgyptAir and South African Airways—and the 28th member worldwide.