Ethiopian Air buys up to 20 behemoth 777X jets, boosting Boeing

Ethiopian Airlines agreed to buy as many as 20 of Boeing Co.’s massive 777X aircraft, providing the coming jet with an important endorsement from one of Africa’s premier airlines.

Mesfin Tasew, chief executive officer of Ethiopian Airlines Group, unveiled the latest deal Tuesday in Addis Ababa. The airline placed a firm order for eight 777-9, along with options for another 12 of the hulking jetliners, designed to seat more than 400 travelers.

The deal — with a value of about $11 billion, Tasew said — provides some sales momentum for Boeing as it works to complete certification of the much-delayed jet family. Boeing has booked 453 total orders for the 777X family, with nearly half of that backlog designated for a single customer: Dubai-based Emirates.

Ethiopian plans to use the 777-9, the largest-ever twin-engine airliner, to reach high-demand markets in Africa, Asia, Europe and North America, it said in a statement. More than half the aircraft in its current fleet are Boeing models, including 15 737 Max jets. The two companies have partnered on other aviation-related capabilities from maintenance to crew training.

The African carrier has remained a customer of Boeing despite the two companies’ troubled recent history. Last year, the carrier announced it was ordering 11 of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliners and 20 of its 737 Max airplanes as part of a fleet overhaul. 

That long-standing relationship was strained after one of the workhorse 737 Max models crashed minutes after takeoff in 2019, after pilots battled a feature later linked to a faulty Boeing design. The tragedy, the second-such fatal crash within a five-month span, sparked a global grounding of the single-aisle model.