The Ethiopian Airlines Aviation Academy (EAAA), a full ICAO TRAINAIR Plus member and IATA authorized global training center, graduated 14 pilots, 53 Aviation Technicians, 38 Marketing Agents and 38 Cabin Crew at a ceremony held at Ethiopian Airlines Headquarters on Monday 25 January 2016. This round of graduates includes nine trainee pilots from Rwanda three of which are female. Tewolde GebreMariam, Group CEO of Ethiopian said, “Ethiopian Airlines believes in the potential of African Aviation and is strategically positioning itself to train the African youth in the latest Aviation technology and latest aviation skills to own, manage and operate their own indigenous home grown African Airlines to lead safe, secure, economical and reliable aviation industry with global standards. In line with this strategic thought, we are very happy to make the Ethiopian Aviation Academy a center of excellence in the continent with adequate capacity to train more than 4,000 African Aviation professionals every single year. Today, we have amongst us nine pilots from Rwanda standing together with their Ethiopian brothers and sisters in the graduation ceremony.”
The Ethiopian Aviation Academy (EAA) is well on its way to becoming one of the seven profit centers of Ethiopian as outlined in its Vision 2025. The EAAA is already the leading aviation training center in Africa and aims to expand its acceptance capacity to 4000 trainees annually. Historically, the academy has kept a reasonable percentage of its capacity for trainees from other African countries contributing to the growth of the aviation industry in the continent. The Ethiopian Aviation Academy has finished constructing several new buildings as part of its expansion program. The new buildings are a Cafeteria, a Commercial and Cabin Crew training school, an Auditorium, an Aviation Maintenance Training School and a Pilot Training School.
The academy also bought new cabin crew door trainers for all aircraft types in the Ethiopian fleet and a full motion Cabin Emergency Evacuation Trainer combined with a standard swimming pool for Safety and Emergency Procedures.
Ethiopian Airlines (Ethiopian) is the fastest growing airline in Africa. In its close to seven decades of operations, Ethiopian has become one of the continent’s leading carriers, unrivalled in efficiency and operational success. Ethiopian commands the lion share of the pan-African passenger and cargo network, operating the youngest and most modern fleet to more than 90 international destinations across five continents. Ethiopian’s fleet includes ultra-modern and environmentally friendly aircraft such as the Boeing 787, Boeing 777-300ER, Boeing 777-200LR, Boeing 777-200 Freighter and dual-class Bombardier Q400 turboprop. The average age of the aircraft in the fleet is five years. Ethiopian is the first airline in Africa to own and operate these aircraft.
