The airline now has 20 A350s in its fleet, totaling more than 140 aircraft. Additionally, the airline runs 27 Boeing 787 Dreamliners, and more are on the way.
At least for the time being, Ethiopian Airlines has received its last Airbus A350-900. The airline received this brand-new widebody on April 28. The following day, on April 29, the plane landed at its Addis Ababa hub. The airline will now wait for the four Airbus A350-1000s it ordered last year in addition to the approximately 20 Boeing airplanes it has already ordered.
Details of the aircraft and delivery flight
The most recent A350-900 operated by Ethiopian Airlines departed Toulouse on Friday, April 28 at 21:39 local time. The aircraft was in operation for six hours and eleven minutes as flight ET9201. Then, on April 29, at 4:50 local time, it arrived in Addis Abeba.The aircraft’s manufacturer serial number (MSN) is 611 and it has the registration ET-AZN.
On April 10th, this same Airbus A350 was initially observed performing an engine run and taxi check. After that, on April 12, it had its maiden test flight. According to Aviation Flights, three test flights had been completed before the delivery flight on April 28. The aircraft completed eight hours and twenty-seven minutes of test flights.a final A350-900
This most recent delivery is the last A350-900 that Ethiopian Airlines is anticipated to receive, according to ch-aviation.com. The website does mention that it is still anticipating receiving four Airbus A350-1000s. Official orders for these extended A350s were made in July 2022 after the company extended the length of four of its pending A350-900 purchases. Ethiopian Airlines became the first airline in Africa to order the A350-1000 as a result of the swap.
Not just Airbus aircraft are still awaiting delivery. In fact, according to statistics from ch-aviation.com, the airline is still anticipating 17 Boeing 737 MAX 8s and two additional 787-9 Dreamliners. There are 141 aircraft in the airline’s fleet as of the time of publication. But this also includes several Boeing 777 freighters.
How and where are Ethiopian Airlines’ Airbus A350s used?
With its Airbus A350-900s, Ethiopian Airlines offers both long- and short-distance flights. Actually, due to its fifth-freedom service between Douala, Cameroon and Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, the airline tops the list for shortest A350 flights. Another reasonably brief fifth-freedom service is run by the airline between Milan-Malpensa and Zurich.
The airline flies as far as Toronto (via Dublin), as well as Beijing and Shanghai in the east, at the other end of the route distance spectrum. While flights from Shanghai and Beijing can take up to 11 or 12 hours to complete, flights from Toronto to Addis Abeba take about 12 and a half hours to complete. The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner is used by the airline on numerous more long-distance flights.
