Ethiopian Suffers $550mln Income loss as Pandemic Hits

ADDIS ABABA – Ethiopian Airlines is bracing for income loss of half a billion dollars over coronavirus pandemic, its chief executive officer said on Tuesday.

Africa’s biggest airlines recently announced that the company has turned its focus on cargo and charter operations to soften the blow.

In the month of March alone, Ethiopian transported a total uplift of over 45,848 tons of cargo to different parts of the world deploying both its freighters and passenger fleet.

But the airlines CEO, Tewolde Gebremariam, said the company’s revenue has seriously affected after suspending 91 of 110 passenger flights.

Ethiopian Airlines “has lost a revenue of 550 million US dollars including April”, he told reporters.

However, Tewolde is confident the company would weather the crisis without laying off any of its 13,000 regular employees.

“Our plan is to sustain and pass this crisis on our own, but if it is unfortunately prolonged beyond our imagination, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there,” he said.