Ethiopian Airlines stays profitable despite Covid-19 travel bans

Ethiopian Airlines Group, Africa’s largest and only consistently profitable carrier, expects to stay in the black for the fiscal year that ends next week, even after the coronavirus upended the global aviation industry. “We may not be as profitable as we expected but we registered some profit,” CEO Tewolde Gebre-Mariam said. “The first half of the year was good and the cargo business has also done very well.” Revenue generated from the transportation of goods has allowed Ethiopian to keep up monthly fixed payments of $120m to $150m, including servicing loans, aircraft leases, salaries and rentals, the CEO said. The carrier is still flying about 40 charter repatriations a week while commercial flights are mostly grounded. The airline still expects to be down almost $1 billion in ticket revenue for the year ending July 7. Negotiations between Ethiopian and Boeing over compensation for the Max jet may be finalized in the next two months, Tewolde said. The model was grounded around the world last year following a second fatal crash outside Addis Ababa in March 2019. “We want the compensation as soon as possible,” the CEO said.<br/>