New commitments for A350 during the visit to Ethiopian Airlines.

MSN2 flying prototype has made a demonstration flight today in Addis Ababa.

 

Source: Airbus

The same aircraft that has been attending with static and flight displays the Dubai Air Show as part of its Middle East-Ethiopia demonstration flight tour, has taken off from the Addis Ababa Bole International Airport and conducted a 1 hour demonstration flight.

 

Onboard, different executives of Ethiopian Airlines, board members of the airline, officials of the Ministry of Transport, the Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority and the Ethiopian Airports Enterprise.

 

SOurce: Airbus

The aircraft has been flown by Airbus test-pilots.

 

An Airbus marketing and technical team lead by Francois Cognard, VP of sales for Middle East and North Africa has also made a briefing.

Source: Airbus

 

Meanwhile, at FAL-Toulouse, the first A350 to be operated by Ethiopian Airlines is in the station-30. “ weeks ago, the Vertical Stabilizer was installed in the fuselage, as shown in the picture.

MSN40 will continue with the cabin interior installation and first electrical power-on and delivery is planned for 2016.

 

Source: Lindner fotografie

Ethiopian Airlines will operate 14 A350 XWB of which 12 are directly purchased from Airbus and two are on lease from AerCap, including this first aircraft.

Ethiopian Airlines plans to place orders for at least 10 Airbus A350-900 aircraft in the next 2 years, in addition to the 14 already on order, its chief executive said today.

Source: Lindner fotografie

"We haven't been able to quantify the right numbers but definitely we are going to order more. At least more than 10," said Tewolde Gebremariam.
 

The carrier will deploy the aircraft on its expanding route network linking the East African nation with Asia and America.

Based on the article “Airbus A350 to conduct demo flight in Addis Ababa” published in Sodere