Ethiopian Airlines

The 1940s: early years

After the liberation of Ethiopia, Emperor Haile Selassie I asked the United States, the United Kingdom, and France to help him establish an airline as part of his modernisation effort. According to the BBC News there is a possibility that the Emperor intended the creation of a quality national airline to help dispel impressions of Ethiopian poverty. In 1945, the Ethiopian government began negotiations with both Transcontinental Air Transport and Western Air Express (later merged into TWA). On 8 September 1945, TWA signed an agreement with the American historian and foreign affairs advisor to Ethiopia John H. Spencer to establish a commercial aviation company in Ethiopia.

The carrier, originally called Ethiopian Air Lines (EAL), was founded on 21 December 1945, with an initial investment of ETB 2,5 million, divided in 25,000 shares that the government entirely held. The company was financed by the Ethiopian government but managed by TWA. At the beginning, it relied upon American pilots, technicians, administrators and accountants; even its General Managers were from TWA. Minister of Works and Communications Fitawrari Tafasse Habte Mikael became EAL's first president and chairman, whereas H. H. Holloway —who was American— was appointed by TWA as general manager. The board held the first meeting on 26 December 1945, with a key point of the agenda being the deposit of E£75,000 in a bank in Cairo for the acquisition of aircraft and spare parts. Shortly afterwards, the airline negotiated for landing rights with Aden, Egypt, French Somaliland, Saudi Arabia and Sudan, and five Douglas C-47s were bought; these aircraft were flown to Addis Ababa in February 1946.

The new airline's maiden flight to Nairobi carried a shipment of East African currency equivalent to US$3.7 million in February 1946, but the first revenue scheduled service was on 8 April 1946; it travelled the Addis Ababa–Asmara–Cairo route using one of five Douglas C-47 Skytrains acquired from the US Government. This route later operated on a weekly basis. The Skytrains were initially intended for military use, although Ethiopian operated them in a mixed passenger-cargo configuration. Soon afterwards, the carrier launched services to Aden and Djibouti, as well as a domestic flight to Jimma. The main five routes in the early years were Addis Ababa–Asmara, Addis Ababa–Djibouti–Aden, Addis Ababa–Khartoum, Addis Ababa–Cairo (routed via Jeddah or Khartoum) and Asmara–Khartoum.

Henry Bruce Obermiller replaced Holloway as a general manager in June 1946. In July of the same year, four more Skytrains joined the fleet. New scheduled services to Sheikh Othman and Nairobi were launched in July 1946 and June 1947, respectively. In 1947, Waldon Gene Golien became the general manager, and the company started operating charter flights to Jeddah during the Hajj season. That year in February, three more Douglas C-47s were acquired to operate new international routes. A service to Mukalla was inaugurated in June 1947. In September, Port Sudan was added to the route network (it was previously a technical stop en route to Cairo), Lydda was incorporated as a scheduled destination in October and charter flights to Bombay were launched in November. Services to Lydda and Mukalla were discontinued in February and April 1948 (1948-04), respectively. In September, the route to Bombay became scheduled, with EAL flying as far as Aden, and BOAC operating the Aden–Bombay sector. The route also included stops at Mesirah Island in Oman and Karachi. For a brief period until April 1948, Mesirah Island was used as a refuelling stop; since then, services to French Somaliland and Aden started on a twice-weekly basis. EAL was allowed to fly to Aden using Sheik 'Othman Airport, located 16 kilometres (10 mi) away from the city, whereas BOAC used the Khormaksar Airport facilities, just 5 km (3 mi) from the city. Aden was under British rule at the time as was Sudan, and the British Empire denied EAL landing rights at Khartoum, forcing the airline to move the refuelling stop on the Aden route to Port Sudan. The carrier recorded a £40,000 profit for 1949.

The 1950s: start of long-haul routes

Services to Bombay were withdrawn in July 1950 (1950-07). Also this year, a US$1,000,000 (equivalent to $13,381,743 in 2025) loan granted from the Ex-Im Bank enabled the carrier to incorporate Convair CV-240s, aimed at operating international routes. Two CV-240s, named "Eagle of Ethiopia" and "Haile Selassie I", entered the fleet in December 1950; starting January 1951, these aircraft were subsequently deployed on the Addis Ababa–Cairo, Addis Ababa–Nairobi, and Addis Ababa–Jeddah–Dhahran–Karachi routes, with Dhahran and Sharjah being incorporated to the route network on 20 February. In April 1952, the airline was appointed general sales agent for TWA in Kenya, Tanganyika, Uganda and Zanzibar, and by May the same year the fleet consisted of two Convair-Liner 240s and nine Douglas DC-3s or their subtypes, operating a route network that was 11,000 km (7,000 mi) long. Services to India and Sharjah were discontinued in 1953.