Ethiopian Airlines, Africa’s largest carrier by fleet and passenger numbers, has reported a robust 14 percent surge in half year revenue, underlining both its own momentum and a powerful rebound in air travel demand across the continent. The state owned group generated 4.4 billion U.S. dollars in revenue in the first six months of the current Ethiopian fiscal year, which began on July 8, 2025, extending a multi year growth streak and reinforcing Addis Ababa’s status as a key hub for African and intercontinental traffic.
Double Digit Growth Confirms Strong Demand Across Africa
The latest figures, presented in Addis Ababa on February 10, 2026, show Ethiopian Airlines converting rising demand into solid top line expansion even as global aviation continues to grapple with capacity constraints and geopolitical uncertainty. Half year revenue climbed to 4.4 billion dollars, up 14 percent from the same period a year earlier, a performance that maintains the double digit growth trajectory achieved in the 2023/24 fiscal year and positions the carrier for another record full year result.
Behind the numbers is a sharp rise in traffic on both intra African and long haul routes. Over the six month reporting period, the airline transported 10.64 million passengers on its international and domestic network. The growth reflects a rebound in business travel, steadily rising leisure flows, and the continued shift of African travelers toward Addis Ababa as a preferred connecting hub for flights to the Middle East, Europe, Asia and the Americas.
The performance is particularly striking given the wider African aviation context. Across the continent, many carriers are still struggling to restore pre pandemic capacity and profitability, squeezed by high operating costs, currency volatility and infrastructure bottlenecks. Ethiopian’s results underscore how scale, network depth and disciplined expansion can help an airline capture outsized benefits from the region’s gradual economic and travel recovery.
Passenger and Cargo Operations Power Revenue Expansion
Ethiopian’s management attributes the half year revenue growth to a balanced contribution from passenger and cargo operations. Passenger services remain the backbone of the business, with demand strengthened by recovering corporate travel, a growing African middle class, and the continued liberalization of air services between a number of African markets. The carrier’s extensive intra African network enables it to channel traffic through Addis Ababa and onwards to 145 international destinations served during the period.
At the same time, cargo has consolidated its role as a strategic profit pillar. The airline moved approximately 451,000 tons of freight during the half year, an increase of close to 20 percent compared with the year earlier period. Dedicated cargo operations, alongside belly hold capacity on passenger aircraft, have been central to the group’s diversification strategy, giving it resilience during times when passenger demand is volatile and positioning Addis Ababa as a logistics gateway for African trade with Asia, Europe and the Middle East.
The combination of rising passenger numbers and higher cargo volumes has allowed the airline to spread fixed costs across a larger base of activity. It also underpins yield management efforts, as the group uses its network scale to optimize capacity deployment, adjust frequencies and capitalize on seasonal peaks in both people and goods movements across the continent.
Fleet Expansion and Network Growth Underpin Performance
To sustain its growth, Ethiopian has continued to invest heavily in fleet and network. During the first half of the fiscal year, the group added seven aircraft, taking its total fleet to around 170 units, including a mix of modern widebody and narrowbody jets as well as business aviation and regional aircraft. The airline has focused on efficient types such as Boeing 787 Dreamliners, Airbus A350s and next generation narrowbodies, which offer lower fuel burn and maintenance costs while delivering the range and comfort needed for both long haul and dense regional routes.
On the route development side, Ethiopian launched three new international services in the six month period, bringing its total international destinations to 145. These additions deepen the airline’s reach into underserved African markets and strengthen its connectivity to key economic centers in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. New routes are carefully layered onto its hub structure at Addis Ababa Bole International Airport, enabling competitive connection times and a wide choice of two way itineraries for both African and intercontinental travelers.
The continued expansion comes on top of a strong full year performance in 2024/25, when the group reported annual revenue of 7.6 billion dollars, up 8 percent year on year, and carried around 19 million passengers. That longer term trajectory gives important context to the latest half year numbers, indicating that the 14 percent interim growth is part of a consistent pattern rather than an isolated spike.
Infrastructure Investments: Bishoftu Mega Hub Takes Shape
Ethiopian’s revenue growth is closely linked to its rising capacity, and that in turn depends on the development of new infrastructure. With Addis Ababa Bole International Airport moving toward its practical capacity limits, the airline and the Ethiopian government have embarked on an ambitious project to build a new mega hub at Bishoftu, southeast of the capital. The Bishoftu International Airport project officially broke ground in January 2026 and is envisioned as a state of the art facility capable of handling tens of millions of passengers annually once fully completed.
The new hub is designed to support Ethiopian’s long term Vision 2035 strategy, which targets a fleet of more than 270 aircraft, 207 international destinations, 65 million passengers and three million tons of cargo per year. A larger, purpose built airport will be critical to sustaining hub operations, reducing congestion, and enabling the banked waves of arrivals and departures that underpin efficient connections between African secondary cities and long haul intercontinental flights.
In parallel, the airline continues to upgrade facilities and services at Bole International Airport, including terminal enhancements, improved transfer flows and expanded cargo handling capacity. These shorter term measures are intended to bridge the gap until Bishoftu becomes operational, while preserving the quality of the passenger experience and supporting further gains in connectivity and schedule reliability.
Challenges: Global Uncertainty, Capacity Constraints and Regulation
The strong half year showing has not come without headwinds. Ethiopian’s leadership has been open about the operational challenges facing the group, including aircraft shortages, tight global engine maintenance capacity and extended turnaround times for delivering new jets. These constraints, affecting airlines worldwide, limit the pace at which the carrier can add capacity even as demand continues to outstrip supply on several key routes.
Geopolitical and security developments have also weighed on the operation. Conflicts in Sudan, the Middle East and the Democratic Republic of Congo, together with broader global uncertainty, have affected overflight rights, route planning, insurance costs and fuel logistics. Ethiopian has had to continually reoptimize its network and sometimes reroute flights, adding complexity and cost while working to keep schedules as stable as possible for passengers and cargo customers.
Regulatory changes, particularly in the United States, have introduced another layer of difficulty. Stricter visa and entry policies for some categories of travelers from Africa have dampened demand on certain Africa U.S. routes and created uncertainty for passengers planning trips. The carrier has responded by refining its capacity allocation between markets, but the impact serves as a reminder that external policy shifts can quickly ripple through international aviation.
Social Impact, Community Investment and Local Economy Linkages
Beyond headline revenue and traffic metrics, Ethiopian Airlines emphasizes its role as a national and regional development engine. During the half year under review, the group invested 260 million Ethiopian Birr in voluntary and community development initiatives, supporting education, health projects and local infrastructure in areas linked to its operations. Such spending reflects the company’s longstanding positioning as a flagship of Ethiopian industry and a major contributor to the country’s foreign exchange earnings.
The airline’s growth has direct and indirect effects across the Ethiopian and African economies. Directly, it sustains tens of thousands of jobs in areas ranging from flight operations and maintenance to ground handling, catering and administrative functions. Indirectly, its network underpins tourism, trade, conference travel and diaspora links, making it easier for investors, tourists and professionals to move between African cities and global economic centers.
Cargo expansion is particularly significant for exporters of perishables, textiles and manufactured goods. Enhanced freighter capacity and more frequent belly hold lift contribute to shorter delivery times and more reliable market access, especially to Europe and the Middle East. This logistical backbone helps farmers, manufacturers and traders capture better prices and expand their customer base, amplifying the macroeconomic impact of the airline’s growth.
What the Surge Means for Travelers and the African Aviation Landscape
For travelers, Ethiopian’s 14 percent half year revenue increase translates into a denser and more diversified network, improved aircraft quality and, over time, a deeper menu of schedule and fare options. Recent route additions expand non stop possibilities from African cities to destinations in Europe, the Gulf and Asia, while additional frequencies on established routes reduce connection times through Addis Ababa and improve resilience when disruptions occur.
The carrier’s investment in a modern fleet brings tangible benefits in comfort, fuel efficiency and reliability. Newer widebody aircraft offer enhanced cabin environments, lower noise levels and more advanced inflight entertainment and connectivity systems. For many African passengers, Ethiopian’s long haul services represent the primary gateway to global travel, and continuous upgrades help bring those experiences closer to the standards offered by leading intercontinental airlines based in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
On a competitive level, the airline’s performance exerts pressure on rivals, both within Africa and beyond. As Ethiopian consolidates its position as a pan African hub carrier, smaller regional airlines may face difficult choices between competing independently, partnering through codeshare arrangements, or aligning with Ethiopian’s multi hub strategy involving affiliated carriers in West, Southern and Central Africa. For global airlines, the growing strength of Addis Ababa as a transfer point challenges traditional routings that have historically relied on European or Gulf hubs for Africa bound traffic.
Outlook: Maintaining Altitude Under Vision 2035
Looking ahead, Ethiopian Airlines enters the second half of the fiscal year with strong commercial momentum but a still challenging operating environment. The group’s management is expected to continue balancing growth aspirations with prudence, calibrating capacity additions to aircraft availability, geopolitical risk and evolving regulatory regimes. The airline’s Vision 2035 strategy provides a clear framework, targeting a near doubling of fleet and destination count, a sharp increase in passengers and cargo volumes, and annual revenue of around 25 billion dollars by the middle of the next decade.
Progress toward those ambitions will depend on several external factors, including the pace of global economic expansion, stability in key African markets, and the ability of aircraft and engine manufacturers to unwind existing supply bottlenecks. Yet the latest half year figures suggest that Ethiopian is converting opportunity into tangible gains more effectively than many of its peers, leveraging its early recovery from the pandemic and its integrated network design to capture a growing share of inter African and Africa world traffic.
For Africa’s travelers, exporters and tourism businesses, the airline’s strong performance is more than a corporate success story. It signals the gradual normalization and modernization of air links across a continent where connectivity has long lagged behind demand. As Bishoftu International Airport rises from the ground and new aircraft join the fleet, Ethiopian’s 14 percent half year revenue surge may be remembered as one of the moments when Africa’s aviation growth story decisively moved into a higher gear.