Jan 20 (Reuters) - Ethiopian Airlines is looking at
placing an order for 10-20 narrowbody jets, its chief executive
told Reuters on Monday.
Such an order would be worth $1-2 billion at list prices.
Ethiopian will probably study proposals from Boeing,
Airbus and Canada's Bombardier, a new entrant
to the market for roughly 150-seat aircraft, Tewolde Gebremariam
said.
The airline, which plans to increase its revenues five-fold
to $10 billion by 2025, is separately evaluating Boeing's latest
wide-body jet, the 406-seat 777X, but has no immediate plans to
place an order, he said.
Speaking on the sidelines of an Airlines Economics
conference in Dublin, he also downplayed concerns over the
Boeing 787 Dreamliner following new glitches on the high-tech
jet which was grounded over battery problems last year.
A Japan Airlines (JAL) Boeing 787 Dreamliner was
grounded last week after white smoke vented from the plane and a
battery cell showed signs of melting.
"We've never had any problems with the batteries,"
Gebremariam said. Ethiopian operates five Dreamliners.
An Ethiopian 787 which caught fire at London's Heathrow last
year resumed service last month without any penalty in
performance following repairs to its carbon-fibre fuselage, he
said.
The fire has been widely linked to small batteries in an
emergency beacon but UK authorities have yet to publish their
official on the incident.
Gebremariam said load factors, or the proportion of seats
sold, had increased when Ethiopian put the 787 on new routes,
such as Frankfurt and London.
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