Ethiopian Airlines annual revenue increases by 29%

October 4, 2019 1:33 PM

The head of communications at Ethiopia’s Public Enterprise Holding and Administration Agency (PEAA) has said that the operating revenue of Ethiopian Airlines has increased by almost 29%.

A member of the ground crew directs an Ethiopian Airlines plane at the Bole International Airport in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, August 21, 2015. REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri

The period under review is from January 2019 to July 31, 2019.

According to Wondafrash Assefa operating revenue has increased by 28.6% year on year to 114.6 billion birr ($3.9 billion).

The PEEA which has a supervisory role over public enterprises in Ethiopia did not give reasons for the revenue leap.

However, according to Reuters, the CEO of the airline Tewolde Gebremariam said in a television interview that that passenger numbers had increased by 14%.

This revenue increase is happening in a year when the airline’s Boeing planes crashed a few minutes after take-off from Addis Ababa en-route to Nairobi.

This happened in March and killed all 157 people on board.

That crash and another involving Lion Air two weeks earlier led to the grounding of U.S. planemaker Boeing’s 737 MAX jets worldwide.