Ethiopian Cargo’s diversified strategy keeps it moving amid pandemic: Fitsum Abadi

April 10, 2020: Ethiopian Airlines has been flying cargo-only passenger aircraft and freighters around the world carrying essentials supplies amid Covid-19. The suspension of passenger airlines has resulted in the loss of 80 percent of the company’s revenue. 

At the recently organised webinar by Logistics Update Africa on ‘Delivering cargo in the times of continental contagion: From essential supplies to critical medicines’, Fitsum Abadi, MD, Ethiopian Cargo & Logistics Services said, “Cargo is getting enough attention in the organisation now. We are following diversified business strategy by working on cargo as well as on the MRO side. We are operating 12 full freighter aircraft, including 10 B777s and 2 B737-800s, in addition to passenger aircraft. All these aircraft operate 19 hours a day and enough resources are being deployed to handle the requirements on the ground on 24x7 basis.” 

Out of Addis Ababa, the airline is flying 8 flights to 8 destinations a day. Ethiopian as of now is flying A350s, B777s and B787-900s. Abadi stated, "We uplift 45 tonnes using A350s and wide bodies carry 65 tonnes from China as full and scheduled charters.” 

In the month of March, Ethiopian Cargo & Logistics Services transported a total uplift of over 45,848 tonnes of cargo to different parts of the world. The shipments include pharmaceuticals, medical supplies, and healthcare products carried with 86 charter flights using B777Fs, each with a capacity of 100 tonnes.