Ethiopian Airlines has partnered with UNICEF to help secure the transport of vaccines and other life-saving supplies worldwide including vaccines.
“Ethiopian has committed to prioritizing the transport of the life-saving supplies, ensuring measures such as temperature control and security and adding freight capacity to routes where needed. The UNICEF Humanitarian Airfreight Initiative has been formed with leading global airlines to support the COVAX Facility, a global solution to the COVID-19 pandemic that ensures participating countries have fair access to vaccines, regardless of their income level,” Ethiopian said in its press statement.
Regarding the partnership, Mr. Tewolde GebreMariam, Group CEO of Ethiopian Airlines, remarked, “It gives us a great pleasure to have partnered with UNICEF in ensuring the Safe, timely and efficient transportation of life-saving supplies globally, thereby supporting access to essential services for children and families. We have invested heavily on our cargo capabilities and launched a new cold chain cargo transport equipped with simultaneous cabin temperature controlling system to efficiently distribute life-saving supplies across the world and we will discharge the global mission.”
Ethiopian Airlines has been working around the clock since the outbreak of the pandemic, delivering much needed medical supplies and PPE throughout the world in support of the global effort to fight COVID-19.
Engine Maintenance
In a related development, Ethiopian Airlines on Tuesday announced becoming the first airline in Africa and the Middle East to successfully carry out the GEnx-1B engine correlation test.
The GEnx-1B engine that powers the B787 Aircraft is one of the technologically advanced high-thrust jet engines in the GE Aviation history that offers up to 15% better fuel efficiency and 15% less CO2 compared to its predecessors. GEnx engine represents a giant leap forward in propulsion technology, using the latest materials and design processes to reduce weight, improve performance and deliver a more fuel-efficient commercial
aircraft engine.
Ethiopian MRO Engine Maintenance shop has been repairing this engine model since October 2018. However, due to unavailability of a test cell to test run the engine before installation on an Airplane, Ethiopian used to send its engine to GE for test once the repair is completed in Addis.