The three new aircraft were supposed to reach Addis Abeba International Airport on Friday October 17. Now the program was postponed to be on Monday after the aircraft reach to Bahirdar on Sunday. Abyssinia Flight Services PLC (AFS) is expecting the arrival of three new aircraft at Bahir Dar International Airport on Sunday, October 19, 2014, from where they will continue to Addis Abeba International Airport on Monday. They purchased the planes from Europe and America.
One is a twin-engine aircraft bought from the Austrian, Diamond Aircraft Company, while two are single engine aircraft from the American, Cessna Aircraft Company. These three were supposed to be delivered to the Addis Abeba International Airport on Friday, October 17, 2014, but were postponed until Sunday and Monday, respectively, for reasons that Abyssinia’s deputy managing director, (cap.) Amare Gebrehana, declined to mention.
With the three new additions, the Company will have a total of eight training aircraft, including five single engine Cessna 172s, one Diamond DA40 and two DA42NGs, according to a press release from the Company.
The AFS was established in 1999 to train pilots and provide chartered flights with the 13 aircraft it has. Four of these aircraft are for the chartered flight services. The trainings the company now gives are the Private Pilot License, Commercial Pilot License, Instrument Rating, Multi-Engine Rating and Instructor Ratings. The Company also has one Flight Simulation Training Device.
One of the aircraft was bought using a loan from the Bank of Abyssinia and the other two are financed by the Company itself, according to Solomon Gizaw, (cap.) the Company’s managing director. The aviation school has more demand than it can accommodate, even if it added 10 more aircraft, he says.
The Company, which now has 30 international students, bought the two single engine aircraft for 325,000 dollars each and the twin-engine aircraft for 650,000 dollars.
“The aircraft cannot directly fly from their source countries to Ethiopia, as their fuel capacity and speed are limited,” says Amare.
Their arrival to Ethiopia was scheduled with refueling stopovers in Egypt and Sudan.
The Cessna were transported from the US to Hamburg, Germany, in containers, with their wings detached. They were reassembled in Hamburg for their flight home. The fuel capacity of the Diamond DA42 aircraft is 289lt and that of the Cessna 172 is 212lt, with speeds of 363 km/h and 239 km/h, respectively.
The Company, established in 1999, now has a capital of 200 million Br and has so far graduated more than 100 pilots.
These aircraft will be used to strengthen the aviation training the school offers to the students enrolled from various countries, Abyssinia says.
- Source: http://addisfortune.net
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