Aviation History
Ethiopian Airlines, founded in December 1945 with technical assistance from TWA, is one of Africa's oldest and most successful carriers and today anchors Addis Ababa's Bole International Airport as a major intercontinental hub. It became the first African airline to operate jet aircraft, an early Boeing 787 Dreamliner operator, and in 2011 the first African member of Star Alliance, while its aviation academy has trained generations of aviators from across the continent. Ethiopian has grown into Africa's largest airline group by fleet and revenue, expanding through subsidiary carriers in other African states, though the March 2019 crash of Flight 302 remains a significant chapter in its history.
Ethiopian Air Lines was established with technical and managerial support from Trans World Airlines (TWA), beginning operations the following year.
The airline's inaugural flight connected Addis Ababa with Cairo, marking the start of scheduled Ethiopian air service.
Ethiopian Airlines founded its aviation academy in Addis Ababa, which grew into one of Africa's largest and most respected pilot and crew training institutions.
With the introduction of the Boeing 720B, Ethiopian became the first sub-Saharan African airline to operate jet aircraft.
Ethiopian Airlines began flights to the United States, becoming one of the first sub-Saharan African carriers to serve the US market.
Ethiopian Airlines became the first African carrier to join the Star Alliance global airline alliance.
Ethiopian became the first African airline to operate the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, an early adopter among global 787 operators.
Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, a Boeing 737 MAX 8, crashed shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa on March 10, 2019, killing all 157 people aboard and contributing to the worldwide grounding of the 737 MAX fleet.
Through continued fleet growth and subsidiary investments in carriers such as ASKY Airlines and Malawi Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines Group solidified its position as Africa's largest airline by fleet size and revenue.
Ethiopian Airlines · ASKY Airlines (Ethiopian-backed) · Malawi Airlines (Ethiopian-backed)
Wikipedia, Ethiopian Airlines corporate history, Star Alliance, aviation trade press
Aviation Firsts
Lideta Airport — Addis Ababa (1936): Constructed 1936-1941 under Italian occupation, built on the same site as an earlier Akaki aerodrome (built in the first months of 1934). Main air hub for roughly three decades; home of Ethiopian Air Lines until Bole opened. Now decommissioned/military-only (Lideta Army Airport). Earlier, informal 1929 aviation sites near Addis Ababa (an improvised landing strip and a racecourse airfield used until 1936) are documented but are not clearly 'airports' in a civil-aviation sense, so are not reported as separate dated claims here. · Wikipedia ↗
Bole International Airport — Addis Ababa (1962): Built 1960; new runway/tower operational by December 1962. Ethiopian Airlines' main hub and the oldest currently-*operating* civil airport confirmed this session. · ADD ↗ · Wikipedia ↗
No citable source declares a definitive 'Ethiopia's oldest airport.' Lideta (1936-41) is the oldest constructed, named airport found, but is now defunct/military-only; Bole (1962) is the oldest currently-operating civil airport confirmed. Dire Dawa Airport's founding date could not be confirmed this session (no dated source found), so it is not reported as a competing claim despite being colloquially cited elsewhere as an early airfield.
Ethiopian Airlines (1945): Founded 21 December 1945 (board's first meeting 26 December 1945) with TWA management support following an 8 September 1945 agreement; first revenue flight 8 April 1946 (Addis Ababa-Asmara-Cairo); renamed Ethiopian Airlines in 1965. No distinct predecessor airline is named in the sourced history, and no competing 'first airline of Ethiopia' claim was found — an uncontested case. · ET ↗ · Wikipedia ↗
No documented foreign entrant found. Ethiopian Airlines' in-house unit, Ethiopian Ground Services, appears to dominate Bole International Airport with no documented third-party foreign entrant. Checked Swissport, dnata, NAS, Menzies, Çelebi, WFS specifically against Ethiopia/Addis Ababa/Bole — the only Ethiopia-NAS connection found was the reverse direction (NAS, a Kuwaiti company, handling Ethiopian Airlines' flights in Kuwait, 2010), not NAS entering Ethiopia. No foreign ground handler's entry into Ethiopia itself could be confirmed.