Ethiopian Airlines bullish about growth in 2022 with strong air cargo demand – The National

Ethiopian Airlines bullish about growth in 2022 with strong air cargo demand – The National

Ethiopian Airlines expects 2022 to be a better year for the aviation industry than 2021, buoyed by strong demand for air cargo, but it said that governments' unco-ordinated response to the emergence of the Omicron coronavirus variant was hindering recovery.

The airline is currently operating at 70 per cent of its pre-pandemic capacity and could recover 80 to 100 per cent of its pre-crisis capacity during this year, Tewolde Gebremariam, chief executive of Ethiopian Airlines, said in a video conference during the Travel & Connectivity Week at Expo 2020 Dubai on Tuesday.

"2022 will be much better than 2021 because we see consecutive growth," he said. "At Ethiopian, we're now at 70 per cent capacity, so we may go up to 80, 90 or even 100 per cent … Most important for us has always been cargo."