Ethiopian Carrier Rethinks 737 Max Purchase, Citing 'Stigma' [View all]

[brooklynite]

Source: Bloomberg

Ethiopian Airlines Group is reconsidering its order for 25 additional 737 Max jetliners from Boeing Co., in part because of the “stigma’’ surrounding the aircraft involved in two fatal air disasters in five months -- one of them an Ethiopian Airlines flight.

Tewolde GebreMariam, the state-owned carrier’s chief executive, spoke in an interview with Bloomberg News a day after Ethiopian officials released a preliminary report on the accident that killed 157 people last month shortly after take off from Addis Ababa and concluded it suffered the same equipment failure as a Lion Air 737 that crashed off Indonesia in October.

“We may reach the decision: Look, we just had a very tragic accident a few weeks ago, and customers still have the accident in their mind. So it will be a hard sell for us to convince our customers,’’ he said.

Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-05/ethiopian-airlines-rethinking-737-max-purchases-citing-stigma