Izvršni direktor Ethiopian Airlines Group: Budućnost afričkog zrakoplovstva

Peter Harbison:

So, when you say summer, you mean what? June? July?

Tewolde Gebremariam:

July, I would say.

Peter Harbison:

July. Okay. Well, time is passing very quickly. That’s fairly close. Do you think there’ll be passenger acceptance? I mean, not just in Ethiopia, obviously you’re a Harvey operator as well.

Tewolde Gebremariam:

My sources at Boeing are petting me that the airplane has so far done about 30,000 flights or something like that. And the reception of passengers has been good. There were not significant number of passengers who declined to fly on that airplane. So, we will build on that in the next few months, by June, July, then it will be universally accepted airplane all over the world, which will be easier for us to convince our passengers here in Ethiopia, in the region.

Peter Harbison:

Right, right. So, you’re firmly a Boeing customer 78s, 777s, 737s. And that’s the way things will stay. Obviously, you’ve had some very fruitful discussions with Boeing in the meantime, too.

Tewolde Gebremariam:

Yes, we are passed through very challenging time in our relationship, but now I think we are in a better shape. Peter, it’s very interesting in the last one year, we must have taken 10 new airplanes when not many airlines were taking very view of airplanes. We took two Airbus A350 and two 787-9004, and then six, no five Bombardier Q400.

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