Furthermore, the seats are fitted with the state-of-the-art in-flight entertainment system offering the choice of over 80 channels. The deployment of these aircraft has enabled us to operate daily non-stop from Washington to Addis Ababa; and, between Addis Ababa and Beijing, thereby reducing the flying time on both legs by over three hours in each direction. Our loyal customers will also be delighted to learn that we have retrofitted our existing aircraft with new seats both in Economy and Business class.

However, the renewal project will not be quite complete until the delivery and arrival of the long awaited member of our young fleet. The breaking news is that Ethiopian will take delivery of its first 787 Dreamliner during the first quarter of 2012. With this ultra modern aircraft, the first of its kind in Africa, we are convinced that our customers will have the ultimate travel experience.

As one of the milestones of this year’s achievements, Ethiopian will, at the end of this year, be joining the largest airline alliance in the world, the Star Alliance. This new partnership will bring enormous choices and flexibility to our customers such as daily departures to over 1,000 destinations and free use of lounges at a number of airports around the globe.

In our continued effort to take our customer services to the next level and provide adequate support for all the new developments, our Aviation Academy has signed a three years customer services culture change training contract with a United States based, Services Quality Institute, to train 2,000 of our front line customer service staff. The first round of this training programme is already in progress.

As part of our strategic network expansion plan we will soon add exciting new destinations like Toronto in Canada and Victoria in Seychelles to our route network.

Last but not least is our pledge to our customers. As part of our corporate social responsibility, we have an open pledge to our customers to plant a tree every time they fly with us. In the last two years alone, we have planted over 7.5 million trees under this programme and it is bound to continue. We therefore request you to support this noble initiative by flying with us.

With all these exciting developments and more to come, Ethiopian would like to once again assure you of its unreserved efforts to make your travel experience an enjoyable and a memorable one.

On behalf of the management team and the entire staff, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support and patronage. Thank you for flying Ethiopian.

Tewolde Gebremariam
Chief Executive Officer
 

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