Hot Air
When Ethiopian Airlines announced it’d be purchasing a handful of new airplanes to augment its growth, who could have envisaged a situation just a few weeks later where the customer has to clarify its position from that of its intended vendor.
Take a quick look at the Airbus Press Release titled - “Ethiopian Airlines orders 12 Airbus A350 XWBs” : Link
“Ethiopian Airlines, one of the largest and fastest growing airlines in Africa, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for 12 Airbus A350 XWB aircraft, becoming a new Airbus customer.“
Since when did signing an MoU qualify for becoming a “new” customer?
Perhaps it’s the same illogical idiocy that besets those who also insist that this is a “firm order”, despite a non-committal gesture that shows a feigned interest and nothing more.
“Ethiopian Airlines refutes the statement as reported [by Airbus] and hereby reiterates and reaffirms that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with for 12 A350-900 purchases,” said a company spokesman.
In contrast, it did indeed sign a firm order with Boeing for 5 777-200LRs.
Image courtesy of Boeing
Of course there is an underlying reason as to why the 777-200LR was firmed up and the A350-900 wasn’t.
Performance.
For a while now, scepticism about Airbus’ claims on the entire A350XWB family remain as mysterious as the Shroud Of Turin. Ethiopian Airlines has delivered an array of queries before it can make the step to firming up its order - the political pressure by the EU has reared its ugly head (ask Thai Airways!) alongside a myriad of unanswered questions about whether or not the A350-900 is good enough to cut the mustard for its operations at Addis Ababa hub.
There’s no question that despite the 787 delays, the 777-200LR provides a formidable platform from which the African carrier can exploit its unique and unmatched capabilities, suited well to the required hot/high performance that Ethiopian Airlines needs all year round.
The underlying crux to this has been the ability to haul freight as well as passengers on a hot day - without any operating empty weight being advertised (let alone finalised) for the A350XWB family, Ethiopian Airlines is presently closer to letting the MoU lapse than it is to signing something more definitive. The carrier is also displeased that the A350XWB only comes with Rolls-Royce engines and is not optimistic that there’ll ever be a second power plant option either (Ethiopian Airlines has GEnx engines on order for its 787s).
So while the amateur-bean counters tally up the A350XWB MoU as a firm deal, Ethiopian Airlines scratches its head and other bodily areas in the bleak “hope” that Airbus will provide them something meaningful to evaluate.
As it stands, there are quarters within the airline that wished they had never announced it in the first place.
78 comments August 14th, 2009
