Despite COVID-19, Ethiopian Airlines Stay Afloat

Africa’s largest airline, Ethiopian Airlines, manages to stay afloat during the peak of COVID-19 pandemic, Tewolde Gebre-Mariam, the airline CEO, stated.

The Chief Executive Officer said “We may not be as profitable as we expected but we registered some profit. The first half of the year was good and the cargo business has also done very well.”

While the airline is expected to be down by almost $1 billion in ticket sales in the current year ending July 7, it generated enough revenue from the transportation of goods to finance monthly fixed payments between $120 million to $150 million for loans, aircraft leases, salaries and rentals.

According to Gebre-Mariam, the airline is still flying about 40 charter repatriations per week despite other flights completely grounded.