The Covid-19 pandemic hit the aviation sector hard with global cumulative losses reaching €103bn ($125.9bn), out of which €1.6bn was incurred by African airlines.
Ethiopian Airlines CEO, Tewolde GebreMariam, says the company “demonstrated agility, quick decision-making and resilience that have helped” in the face of falling passenger traffic, which, in Africa, registered a 69% drop in 2020 compared to figures from the previous year.
The airline is now the first on the continent to test the International Air Transport Association (IATA) health passport.
At the peak of the crisis, the company prioritised air cargo business: 25 refitted passenger aircraft joined the existing fleet of 12 cargo planes, Tewolde told The Africa Report.
This is a growing sub-sector, and demand is already 9% higher than before the crisis. “Ethiopian Airlines took a conscious decision to develop both its
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