Originally Posted by WHBM
Ethiopian Airlines to Buy Up to Ten Boeing 787 Dreamliners
Am I the only one not viewing this with total enthusiasm. Here's the 787, latest technology that the major airlines of the world have to try hard to justify, and here's one of the poorest nations in the world coerced into buying them.
It's in the same week that we are told by a meeting of international finance ministers that we have to write off huge amounts of third-world debt, the implication being the debt was borrowed to feed the starving populations. Well examples like this one show where the money actually goes. And I am involved in a charity that is working hard in Ethiopia to alleviate conditions, while the government there (Ethiopian Airlines is government-owned) just spends its scarce foreign exchange in directions like this, and it just ends up in Boeing's back pocket.
If Boeing had instead donated the Ethiopians one or more 767s as they run out of production that would surely be more meritorious.
Tsk tsk tsk
While ET is government owned, you have to remember that ET is still a profit-making company that earns valuable hard currency that is well used in the country. Like any airline, ET pays for its purchases out of what it makes through the transportation of pax and cargo from many parts of the world. ET has been around for a long time and has always maintained a young and technologically advanced fleet (and an all-Boeing jet fleet I might add). ET has done so even during worse times that the country is experiencing, including but not limited to the 1984 famine that all western countries' people are well aware of. If you are indeed charity minded and wish for the best to the people of Ethiopia, then you should be happy with the developments and what these purchases will contribute to Ethiopia as a whole.
As for why would ET get a 787 instead of sticking to the 763s it currently uses, well, while they are great for its operations, they still limit the airline from opererating ultra-long flights like ADD-PEK and ADD-IAD without a stopover (flights to IAD make a tech stop at Rome, with no rights to pick/drop pax from either end). Additionally, the 787s projected fuel savings over existing aircraft make it even more attractive to the airline. Why should ET pay for the lease of relatively fuel-guzzling aircraft when it can get more out of a better product?
I am actually elated to see the fact that this order will be part of a deal with Boeing setting up a subsidiary in Ethiopia. This would definitely create some balance with the political pressure that I am sure the airline and the country get from the US to purchase only Boeing-made aircraft. Yes, the history between Boeing and ET goes way back, but when you have Airbus knocking at your door and offering a much lower prices, you don't simply shrug it off and decide to pay much higher for a comparable aircraft (I am still trying to find out about what really happened with that Airbus 340 ET leased from Airbus, trained pilots and FAs for, had it painted in its livery and went through flight tests and pooof, cancelled it and acquired a 763! The Airbus was to be used on the ADD-IAD run). Aid is aid, and the last time I checked ethics, aid was supposed to be given to help people out, not to get something in return. And don't tell me there is no pressure on ET to purchase Boeing aircraft: if US Senators and Congressmen publicly write to lawmakers in countries like Taiwan to go with Boeing and that their Airbus purchase would hurt the US etc etc, I am sure they also do it to Ethiopians.
magexpect, ET does pay for its purchases, and has always done so (the airline has had a modern jet fleet since the early 60s). I would like to point a certain event that occured back in 1996, once ET acquired four 763s from Boeing. The loan terms were based on very high interest rates with this (of course) American bank, which were too high for Ethiopian to work with, considering the political instability in the region (tensions with a neighboring country). So, in order to deal with the high interst issue, ET asked the bank to renegotiate the terms, which the bank refused. So ET went to the Ethiopian government and got a loan at a lower rate and paid off what it owed to the bank. Well, $*** hit the fan with the American Bank going to the US Treasury as it was no longer going to get the high rates it had expected etc. Anyways, as you can now imagine,