Africa’s biggest carrier, Ethiopian Airlines, is feeling the effects of a bitter seven-week strike at plane maker Boeing, its chief executive told AFP on Friday, warning that consequences could stretch into the longterm.
Production of the American company’s best-selling 737 MAX, as well as the 777 jet, were halted by the strike that ended early this month and driven by worker exasperation after more than a decade of near stagnant pay.
The strike exacerbated the company’s already-precarious outlook after a January incident in which a fuselage panel blew out mid-flight on a 737 MAX operated by Alaska Airlines.
“Delivery dates of the air planes that we have ordered from Boeing are still sleeping,” Ethiopian Airlines CEO Mesfin Tasew told AFP in Addis Ababa.
The delivery schedule fell behind about a year ago and the strike had “worsened” the situation, he said.
European aviation giant Airbus was meanwhile on time. “The major issue is with Boeing,” Mesfin conceded.
Boeing said Tuesday that it would be several weeks before it fully restarts airplane production, given that restarting a manufacturing line is a multi-stage process.
The delay, according to Mesfin, was due to affect the state-owned airline’s longterm growth.
The airline — the only profitable carrier in Africa — said in July it had posted a 14 percent jump in revenue for the 2023/24 financial year, carrying 17.1 million passengers.
In March 2019, an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX from Addis Ababa to Nairobi plunged six minutes after take-off, killing all 157 on board, and triggered the global grounding of the aircraft.
Tensions between the airline and Boeing soared in the immediate aftermath, with Ethiopian pushing back on suggestions the tragedy resulted from pilot error.
Boeing later admitted that its faulty flight handling system — known as the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) — was partly to blame.
Mesfin said the airline “suffered a lot” due to the crash, calling it a “serious scar”.
“However, we still have confidence in Boeing that it is a great aerospace company,” he said.
Ethiopian Airlines began flying the 737 MAX again in February 2022.
Conflicts in Sudan and the Middle East were also impacting the airline’s results, Mesfin said, adding that they had stopped flying to Lebanese capital Beirut and Sudan’s Khartoum. Flights to Tel Aviv in Israel had also been cut.
Despite the setbacks, the airline remained optimistic of being close to its targets by the end of the year, the CEO said, thanks in part to a recent delivery of Airbus A350-900s.
