ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES BOEING 707 IN THE 70S

ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES B707 OPERATIONS IN THE 70S

Ethiopian Airlines sticker/poster. www.pinterest.com

The national flag carrier of Ethiopia was founded on December 21, 1945 and first regular operations started with DC3 on April 8 1946 (Addis Ababa-Asmara-Cairo) . TWA was awarded a management contract which helped the company to become a major force in the African continent. ET was not immune from the frenzy to acquire jets as major competitors of the airline were building a strong fleet of jets that will render its DC6 obsolete and un-competitive. The company chose the 720 among the Comet and the Caravelle and an order was placed on August 12, 1960.  The  Boeings were delivered in late 1962 at the new airport (please see the table)  (as the old airport in ADD could not support the operations of the B720).The first Boeing service was inaugurated on January 15, 1963 with a direct flight to Nairobi. The timetable dated June 1, 1963 gives us  the scope of the B707 operations merely 6 months after its delivery.

"Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 720B ET-AAH LHR 1982-5-29" by Eduard Marmet -. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

source www.timetableimages.com/Bjorn Larsson collection

The winter timetable December 1,1970-March 31,1971

source Arthur Na Collection with kind permission

outlines the development of the company if Madrid was lost Entebbe, Dar-es-Salam, Rome (on June 5, 1964) , Beirut, Karachi and Delhi are added to the network providing  most sought links between Pakistan , India and West Africa  and between East and West Africa : for example, ET 790 NBO-ADD will connect with ET 770 ADD-DEL  and ET 784/772 will be a through service starting in Accra continuing the following route Lagos-Entebbe-Nairobi-Addis Ababa-Karachi-Delhi. At Accra there will be connecting flights by both Ghana  and Nigeria Airways to Abidjan, Monrovia, Freetown , Bathurst and Dakar.

The company continues its expansion as witnessed by its timetable dated June 1, 1975 .

source Arthur Na Collection with kind permission

Beirut, Karachi and Delhi are lost due to the poor economics of the lines, but Jeddah, Paris,  London, Douala, Kigali , Kinshasa joins the network but the most significant destination is Peking . Ethiopian airlines being the only African company serving the Chinese capital from February 21, 1973 . By 1975, the company was completely run by Ethiopian nationals the last TWA contract employee had left Ethiopian by 1974.

ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES AFRICA-ASIA B707 NETWORK 1975

ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES EUROPE-MIDDLE EAST  B707 NETWORK 1975

As the company grew, the need for more modern , fuel efficient and economic aircraft rose ( the oil embargo in 1973 had a devastating effect on the price of jet fuel). Only alternatives were either Russian jets (the TU 154 was quite a popular aircraft), the Being 737-200 and the 727-200. Ethiopian airlines chose the B727-200  and ordered 2 frames which were delivered in September and October 1979 respectively replacing the ageing B720 .
The last timetable of the decade : the winter 1979-1980 reflects this new state of things and worth noting that all all flights were conducted with the B720.

ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES AFRICA-ASIA B720 NETWORK 1979/80

ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES MIDDLE EAST-EUROPE B720 NETWORK 1979/80

MISSHAPES

During the seventies, 1 Boeing 707 was lost . ET-ACD (Boeing 707-360C) crashed on take-off on November 19, 1977 from Fiumicino airport while operating as a cargo flight. Unfortunately all 5 occupants of the plane died in this crash


LIST OF B707/720 OPERATED BY ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES IN 70S

Photo Gallery

ET-AAH

"Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 720-060B Fitzgerald" by Steve Fitzgerald -. Licensed under GFDL 1.2 via Wikimedia Commons.

ET-AFA

"Boeing 720-024B, Ethiopian Airlines AN1055719" by Tim Rees - Licensed under GFDL 1.2 via Wikimedia Commons.

Maps generated by the Great Circle Mapper - copyright © Karl L. Swartz.