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26 June, 2007
The Ethiopian Airlines bought four double-engine and ten single-engine trainer planes from the US-based Cessna Aircraft Company, Captain Lemma Tekaligne, the airline's pilot training school manager, told The Reporter on Tuesday.
The planes, scheduled to arrive in Addis Ababa within the first quarter of 2008, will serve the airline’s pilot training school.
Purchased for a package price of over six million US dollars, the newly-bought planes are expected to replace the airline’s existing twelve trainer aircraft.
Currently, the pilot training school is employing two double-engine and ten single-engine Cessna, which have a 20-year service behind them.
Equipped with features familiar to those modern technology commercial jets such as Boeing 767, the cockpit layout of the new trainer planes will help trainees have a better insight on how the latest commercial planes are operating, according to Captain Lemma.
The acquisition of the new trainer aircraft is part of the airline’s effort to modernize and upgrade its pilot training school. The airline has recently built a new dormitory and pilot training building. It has also acquired the latest flight training devices, according to the captain.
On Tuesday, the school graduated 18 pilots of Ethiopian nationals who completed two years of training on commercial piloting with instrument and multi-engine ratings.
Ethiopian nationals, who have fulfilled the criteria and passed the entry exams required to take the training, will take the courses for free, and have to serve the airlines for a minimum of five years after graduation.
With a tuition fee of USD 68,000, the school also offers the two-year pilot training course to both foreign and national trainees on a private basis. However no national trainee has so far been registered on a private basis.
Established in 1964, the school has so far graduated 788 pilots, of whom 293 are foreign nationals, mainly from Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Europe.
Currently, 80 pilot trainees are being trained at the school.
By Hayal Alemayehu - Ethiopian Reporter