Ethiopian Airlines (IATA: ET) took delivery of its 25th Dash 8-400 aircraft on Friday, 26th July 2019. This was during a ceremony held at the De Havilland Aircraft of Canada (DHC) Limited base in Ontario, Canada. The commemorative ceremony also marked De Havilland Canada's 600th Dash 8-400 aircraft delivery. The turboprop-powered aircraft delivery in a dual class configuration will serve to boost the airline's domestic and regional network.
It is worth noting that the airline has had a successful working history with the aircraft in mention since it took delivery of its first in November 2008. Since then, Ethiopian won the Airline Reliability Performance Award by Bombardier Aerospace, the former proprietor of the Dash 8-Q400 program, for 7 years in a row. The most recent award achieved by the airline was for the year 2017, and sought to recognize the aircraft operator as having the highest rate of dispatch reliability.
Ethiopian, the flag carrier of Ethiopia and a member of the Star Alliance, was founded in December 1945 and is wholly owned by the Government of Ethiopia. It has in recent times grown to become the largest airline in Africa and as of 20th January 2019, commanded an 8.4% share of total seat capacity on the continent. For comparison the second largest market leader, EgyptAir (IATA: MS), commanded a 5.6% share of total seat capacity on the continent.
Additionally, the airline currently has a fleet size of 116 passenger aircraft with an average age of 6.4 years. From its hub at the Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, these aircraft collectively serve over 110 international passenger destinations, 21 domestic passenger destinations, and over 40 freighter destinations. It is no surprise that in November 2018, ForwardKeys, a big data firm focused on the travel industry, described Ethiopian's hub airport as being the "leading gateway to Sub-Saharan Africa" for international transfer passengers to the region, therefore taking the crown previously held by Dubai International Airport.
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