Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, March 1, 2024 – Ethiopian Airlines Group, the largest airline group in Africa and one of the fastest-growing airlines brand globally, proudly announces the launching of its state-of-the-art e-commerce logistics facility in a grand event today. The Ethiopian e-commerce facility is located inside the Ethiopian Cargo & Logistics premises.
The newly built facility, which is dedicated to e-commerce, mail and courier logistics services is aimed at bridging logistical gaps and positioning Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, as the cross-border e-commerce logistics hub for Africa and beyond.
This e-commerce Logistics Facility is equipped with state-of-the art technology and meticulously implemented systems; as a result, the facility will offer a range of services including consolidation, deconsolidation, sortation, repacking, labeling and more. Customers can now track and trace their shipments effortlessly from anywhere.
In autumn 2020, Deutsche Lufthansa AG (LHA.DE) announced that it would soon be offering Economy Class passengers a range of high-quality food and beverages for purchase on board short- and medium-haul flights.
The airline has now decided on its catering partners: With dean&david, Lufthansa was able to win over a young gastronomy company from Munich that represents freshness, quality and a sense of responsibility – for healthy food, high-quality ingredients and sustainable nutrition as well as environmentally friendly packaging. The culinary offer, which will be available on flights with a duration of at least 60 minutes, will be high quality and full of variety. Gate Gourmet, Lufthansa’s new main caterer for Europe, prepares essential components of the assortment, such as salads, bowls, wraps and sandwiches, fresh daily according to dean&david recipes. The menu includes a salmon avocado bowl, falafel tahini salad, crunchy chicken bowl or sweet chilli chicken sandwich as well as freshly made Birchermuesli. There will also be “Best of dean&david Boxes” with a fine selection from the dean&david assortment.
The menu selection will be complemented by cake specialities and snacks from other manufacturers, such as vegetable crisps. The prices for meals and snacks will range from two to about 12 Euros. The range of fresh products will be updated every three months.
Lufthansa will be expanding its long-standing cooperation with the traditional Munich-based company Dallmayr for hot beverages, confectionery and patisserie specialties. One highlight of this assortment is the project coffee Dano. The name stands for a cultivation region in Ethiopia. Dallmayr supports local people there with projects such as building a school and establishing a coffee cooperation. The product range is complemented by various organic teas, such as Alpine Herbs and First Flush Darjeeling, as well as chocolate milk. Furthermore, chocolates from the Dallmayr praline factory and a selection of cake specialities in cooperation with Gate Gourmet will also be offered.
There will also be a large selection of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. A bottle of tomato juice or orange juice, for example, will be available for three Euros, as will a cup of coffee, hot chocolate or tea. A bottle of water and a small chocolate surprise will be served free of charge.
The focus of the new in-flight offer is on quality, freshness and sustainability. Christina Foerster, Executive Board Lufthansa Group Customer, IT & Corporate Responsibility, explains: “Our partners dean&david and Dallmayr represent outstanding quality and responsible action. In addition to the satisfaction of our guests, the topic of responsibility for the environment is also very important to us. We use almost exclusively sustainable materials for our packaging. Furthermore, we ensure that less food is wasted through more accurate production. We are pleased to be able to offer our passengers fresh products on European flights that taste delicious.”
The new food and beverage offer scheduled to be available on Lufthansa’s short- and medium-haul flights starting in the course of the summer timetable 2021. Orders will be placed directly on board.
SYDNEY (Reuters) – China Development Bank (CDB) Financial Leasing Co said on Monday it had agreed with Boeing Co <BA.N> to cancel the purchase of 29 undelivered 737 MAX jets, adding to a string of recent cancellations of the grounded airplane.
The model has been grounded globally for more than a year following deadly crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia.
“In light of evolving aviation market dynamics, we’ve been working together with Boeing over many months to re-calibrate our MAX orderbook to be in line with our long-term view of the market and related opportunities,” Xuedong Wang, chairman of CDB Financial unit CDB Aviation, said in a statement.
The lessor said it retained an order for another 70 of the planes that also have yet to be delivered.
Boeing recorded a total of 150 MAX cancellations in March, including 75 from Irish leasing company Avolon. Boeing remains in talks with regulators seeking approval to return the plane to service, but its customers have also seen a sharp fall-off in demand due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Boeing said in a statement it continued to partner with leasing company customers to help them balance their portfolios in a challenging market.
“As we work to return the 737 MAX to service, our focus remains on addressing our customers’ fleet needs while optimising the delivery of the more than 4,000 airplanes in our 737 backlog,” it said.
“As market conditions normalise, Boeing anticipates that lessors who have restructured or reduced their orderbooks will continue to add MAX aircraft to their portfolios through sale leaseback agreements with airlines,” the planemaker said. “Longer term we expect these lessors will again place orders for direct MAX purchases.”
CDB Financial Leasing said that all 737 MAX 10 jets still on order will be switched to the smaller 737 MAX 8 model, and 20 deliveries will be deferred to dates in 2024, 2025 and 2026.
(Reporting by Jamie Freed; additional reporting by David Shepardson in Washington Editing by Tom Hogue and Muralikumar Anantharaman)
A Boeing 737 Max aircraft is seen parked in a storage area at the company’s production facility in Renton
CHICAGO (Reuters) – United Airlines Holdings Inc <UAL> on Tuesday beat Wall Street estimates for quarterly profit and held to its 2020 profit target, with a turnaround strategy overseen by its outgoing CEO underpinning growth even as the Boeing 737 MAX remains grounded.
Chicago-based United is one of three U.S. airlines cancelling more than 1,000 monthly flights in a hit to profits as the 737 MAX remains grounded following two deadly crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia. Boeing Co <BA> said on Tuesday it does not expect approval for the 737 MAX’s return to service until mid-year, later than previously forecast.
While United has warned of a hit from the MAX grounding, it did not disclose any estimated financial impact from the fallout and stood by its full-year adjusted EPS range of $11 to $13.
Total operating revenue rose 3.8% to $10.89 billion, boosted by strong travel demand and Chief Executive Oscar Munoz’s three-year strategy to build up the airline’s flight connections through its main U.S. hubs. United President Scott Kirby will succeed Munoz as CEO later this year.
Revenue per mile flown, a closely watched industry measurement, rose 0.8% in the fourth quarter and United forecast similar growth in the first quarter given solid bookings.
However, unit costs excluding fuel and profit-sharing expenses, a concern for investors in a year of contract negotiations with pilots, rose 2.7%.
United had already announced a non-cash impairment charge of $90 million in the fourth quarter related to its Hong Kong routes, following anti-government protests in the city.
Shares of United closed 4.4% lower at $85.79 before the earnings release, tracking sharp declines for U.S. airline and travel stocks on concerns over the Wuhan coronavirus in China, which J.P.Morgan analyst Jamie Baker said poses a near-term overhang for airlines.
United did not comment on the outbreak in its results but separately said there is no impact on its operations and it remains in close contact with U.S., Chinese and other Asian authorities on safety.
United management will host a conference call to discuss results on Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. EST (1630 GMT).
Adjusted net income rose to $676 million, or $2.67 per share, in the fourth quarter to Dec. 31, from $657 million a year earlier, topping a Wall Street consensus forecast for $2.65 per share.
Fellow U.S. MAX operators Southwest Airlines Co <LUV> and American Airlines Group Inc <AAL> are due to report quarterly results on Thursday.
The three airlines are scheduling without the MAX until early June though that timeline will likely need to be pushed back following Tuesday’s guidance from Boeing.
United, which had 14 737 MAX jets in its fleet at the time of the grounding, said it plans to take delivery of 28 MAX variants in 2020 depending on U.S. regulatory approval and Boeing’s subsequent pace of production and deliveries.
Among other aircraft orders, it expects to take delivery of two Boeing 777-300’s and 15 Boeing 787’s in 2020 but has decided to assign its purchase obligations for 20 Embraer 175’s to one of its regional partners once each jet is delivered.
(Reporting by Tracy Rucinski in Chicago; Additional reporting by Dominic Roshan K L in Bengaluru; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
An American Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 flight approaches to land at Reagan National Airport in Washington
FILE PHOTO: Boeing 737 Max aircraft at Boeing’s 737 Max production facility in Renton
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkish Airlines and Boeing have come to an agreement concerning compensation for certain losses caused by grounded and undelivered Boeing 737 Max aircraft, the Turkish airline said on Tuesday.
The statement to the Istanbul stock exchange did not specify the value of the deal. The airline has 24 Boeing 737 MAX planes in its fleet. The 737 MAX has been grounded since March after two crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia killed 346 people within five months.
(Reporting by Ceyda Caglayan; Editing by Daren Butler)
Oct 15 (Reuters) – United Airlines on Tuesday topped Wall Street estimates for quarterly profit, boosted by higher fares and lower fuel costs, and lifted its 2019 profit target despite the continued grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX.
Chicago-based United is one of three U.S. airlines that have each had to cancel more than 2,000 monthly flights through the end of the year as Boeing Co’s 737 MAX remains grounded following two deadly crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia.
The flight cancellations have weighed on airline profits and costs, but strong travel demand, despite concerns of a global economic slowdown, continued to offset MAX headwinds and disruption in Hong Kong and China.
As a result, United raised its 2019 adjusted diluted earnings per share guidance to $11.25-$12.25 versus $10.50-$12.00 previously.
United shares, which closed up 1% at $87.88 before the earnings release, were about 1% higher in after-hours trading.
Total operating revenue rose 3.4% to $11.38 billion, underpinned by the airline’s three-year strategy to build up flight connections through its main U.S. hubs.
But closely watched unit costs excluding fuel and profit-sharing expenses, a concern for investors, rose 2.1%.
The airline, which is in talks with Boeing over 737 MAX compensation, did not provide any details on the estimated financial impact of the grounding.
Adjusted net income rose to $1.05 billion, or $4.07 per share, in the third quarter, from $834 million or $3.05 per share a year earlier.
Analysts on average had forecast $3.95 per share, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
United management will host a conference call to discuss results on Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. EDT (1430 GMT).
Fellow U.S. MAX operators Southwest Airlines and American Airlines, which have both warned of a pretax profit hit from the MAX grounding, are due to report quarterly results next week.
United, Southwest and American are all scheduling without the MAX until early January.
(Reporting by Tracy Rucinski in Chicago and Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru Editing by Shinjini Ganguli and Matthew Lewis)
CHICAGO/WASHINGTON, Aug 22 (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said on Thursday it would invite Boeing 737 MAX pilots from across the world to participate in simulator tests as part of the process to recertify the aircraft for flight following two fatal crashes.
Earlier, Reuters reported that the agency had asked the three U.S. airlines that operate the MAX to provide the names of some pilots who had only flown the 737 for around a year, including at least one MAX flight.
In a statement, the FAA said it had not specified the number of required hours of flight experience, but said the candidates would be a cross-section of line pilots and must have experience at the controls of the MAX.
Boeing Co’s latest 737 narrow-body model, the MAX, was grounded worldwide in March after two crashes within five months in Indonesia and Ethiopia that killed 346 people.
Boeing has been reprogramming software for a stall-prevention system at the center of both crashes, which the FAA must approve before the plane flies again commercially.
The FAA said it had not yet specified a firm schedule for the tests.
Boeing has said it is working toward getting the 737 MAX flying again commercially in the early fourth quarter. Reuters reported on Thursday that it had told suppliers it planned to ramp 737 production back up in February, sending its shares 4% higher.
The world’s largest planemaker slowed its 737 production rate in April because deliveries of the MAX, which makes up the bulk of its single-aisle production, were frozen under the grounding, hitting its supply chain and airline customers.
In the United States, MAX operators Southwest Airlines Co , American Airlines and United Airlines have had to cancel hundreds of daily flights as they wrestle with slimmer fleets at a time of strong domestic air travel demand.
The MAX is Boeing’s fastest-selling aircraft, with about 5,000 pending orders.
As part of its own testing process, Boeing has invited senior airline pilots to experiment with the software fix and use simulators to run scenarios similar to the ones that led to the two crashes.
But sources told Reuters that the FAA also wanted to observe newer 737 pilots. One source said the simulator tests were supposed to be conducted during the first week of September but had been pushed back to the middle of the month.
The FAA, which is working alongside global regulators, has said repeatedly it does not have a fixed time line to approve the grounded jets to fly commercially again.
(Reporting by Tracy Rucinski in Chicago and David Shepardson in Washington; Additional reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Peter Cooney)
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian airline Ural Airlines plans to receive the first of 14 previously ordered Boeing-737 MAX aircraft for leasing in December, Interfax news agency reported, citing its chief executive Sergei Skuratov.
Two Boeing MAX aircraft crashed in Ethiopia in March and Indonesia last October, triggering the global grounding of the aircraft. Regulators must approve the fix and new pilot training before the jets can fly again.
“These are good aircrafts. Mistakes have been made, but they are going to be fixed,” Skuratov was quoted as saying by Interfax.
Ural Airlines signed a deal for the leasing of 14 Boeing-737 MAX 8 in the spring of 2018. The delivery was expected between October 2019 and May 2022, Interfax said.
When asked whether the company considered cancelling the deal, Skuratov told the agency that “Boeing has certain advantages: seven hours 45 minutes (of flight) without refueling fully loaded.”
Ural Airlines plans to receive its first Airbus A320neo in August with an additional four jets expected to arrive by the end of 2019, he added.
(Reporting by Polina Devitt,; Editing by William Maclean)
FILE PHOTO: Bjoern Kjos, CEO of Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA, attends a press conference presenting quarterly report of the company, in Oslo
PARIS (Reuters) – Norwegian Air expects Boeing’s 737 MAX aircraft to remain grounded until at least the end of August, missing the European summer season, CEO Bjoern Kjos said on Friday.
“If you ask Boeing they still say June or July,” Kjos said at the Paris Air Forum. “But we’re already in mid-June – we’ve planned for the MAX to be out until the end of August.”
More than 300 Boeing 737 MAX jets have been grounded worldwide after two fatal crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia killed nearly 350 people. Some airlines now expect the plane to remain out of action until the end of 2019.
Norwegian, which operated 18 of the planes, has said the grounding will raise its costs by up to 500 million Norwegian crowns ($58 million). The low-cost, long-haul operator has delayed disposal of older Boeing 737 models or prolonged leasing contracts while it waits for their MAX replacements.
Boeing is awaiting a decisions by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration on software improvements it proposed after the crashes and whether to require additional pilot training before flights can resume.
If more training is ordered, a shortage of simulators means that “it might be much longer” before commercial flights resume, Kjos said. “For some operators it could take up to a year.”
As a customer of Boeing’s GoldCare maintenance program, however, the CEO said Norwegian might not have to wait that long.
“We’d hope to be at the front of the queue,” he said.
(Reporting by Laurence Frost and Tim Hepher; Editing by David Goodman)
(Corrects “cancels” to “plans to postpone” in the first paragraph after AZAL changed its comment. Removes quote)
MOSCOW,
June 3 (Reuters) – Azerbaijan airline AZAL plans to postpone a $1
billion contract with Boeing to purchase 10 737 MAX jets, a spokesman
said on Monday, following fatal crashes involving the aircraft in
Ethiopia and Indonesia.
Boeing’s
top-selling aircraft, the 737 MAX, has been grounded worldwide since
the March 10 disaster, which killed 157 people and came just five months
after a Lion Air crash in Indonesia that killed 189 in a plane of the
same model.
Many countries barred 737 Max jets from taking off or landing at local airports.
(Reporting by Nailia Bagirova; writing by Margarita Antidze)
