Ethiopian Airlines, the leading, fastest growing and most profitable airline in Africa, is pleased to announce that it will operate an All-Women Functioned Flight on November 19, 2015 on the Addis Ababa- Bangkok Route. It is the first time Ethiopian has operated such a flight in the 70 years of its service.

Ethiopian Airlines starts all women operated flight

Come and Watch All-Women Functioned Flight at Ethiopian Airlines
Ethiopian Airlines is pleased to announce that it will operate an All-Women Functioned Flight on November 19, 2015 on the Addis Ababa - Bangkok route.
This historic flight is aimed at crystalizing Ethiopian corporate conviction of “Women Empowerment for a Sustainable Growth” and it is the first of its kind in Ethiopian 70 years of service.
This historical flight will be operated by an All - Female crew led by Female Flight deck crew members and senior female executives onboard that flight. On ground Flight preparations will also be conducted by females only such as Cabin Operations, Airport Operations, Flight Dispatcher, Load Controller, Ramp Operations, On-board logistics, Aviation Safety and Security, Ticket Offices, Catering, Air Traffic Controllers as well as Global Call Center.
Group Chief Executive Officer of Ethiopian Airlines, Mr. Tewolde GebreMariam, remarked, “It is a great honor for us to have competent Women Aviation Professionals at Ethiopian in every aspect of the aviation field, which portrays Ethiopian as gender responsive organization that strives to pursue its underlying stance of being an equal opportunity employer. We are very proud of their achievements and contributions and it is our sincere belief that this will continue with an enhanced magnitude and passion to sustain Ethiopian on its fast growth trajectory.

Above all, this is an ample opportunity to inspire young African female students to believe in their dreams and embark to fill the skill gap for Aviation professionals. Women are the continent’s greatest untapped resources, and hereby fully dedicated to ensure the increase number of women in decision making positions on top of key operational areas by consistently grooming and mentoring successor female employees for top managerial, technical and operational positions. We invite the whole world to watch our all-female operated long haul flight to and from Bangkok.”
It is to recall that Ethiopian Airlines has created a more conducive situation for new mothers, by launching a Nursing Room equipped with modern amenities; comfortable reclining chairs, and refrigerators for the storage of breast milk. New electronic breast pumps are also distributed to new mothers. The fact that female employees comprise 30% of the total Ethiopian employee population signifies Ethiopian core value of equal opportunity employer.

U.S. 'reasonably certain' drone strike killed ISIS mouthpiece 'Jihadi John'

(CNN)He hid his face, but "Jihadi John" was the English-speaking voice of ISIS. His twisted, videotaped taunts and acts of terrible cruelty -- beheading hostages who had gone to the Middle East to report stories and help others -- symbolized the Islamist militant group's depravity and ruthlessness.

Not anymore, it appears.

U.S. Army Col. Steven Warren said Friday that a drone strike the previous night killed everyone in the targeted vehicle, with Mohammed Emwazi -- a.k.a. "Jihadi John" -- likely among them.

"We are reasonably certain that we killed the target that we intended to kill, which is Jihadi John," the Army spokesman said. "...This guy was a human animal, and killing him is probably making the world a little bit better place."

The United States had been tracking Emwazi closely since Wednesday, and he was seen leaving a building and getting into a car Thursday, U.S. officials said. Three drones went after that vehicle, which also had another person inside, and two Hellfire missiles were fired.

Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, a Syrian activist group, said a missile hit Emwazi's car directly at 11:51 p.m. (4:51 p.m. ET) in front of an ISIS court in Raqqa. Citing a source in ISIS' de facto capital, the same group said that ISIS militants then ringed that vehicle and two others that had been struck to prevent anyone from getting closer.

Speaking hours later Friday, British Prime Minister David Cameron cast the airstrike as an act of self-defense that, if it is confirmed Emwazi is dead, "will strike at the heart of ISIS."
"We always said we will do whatever is necessary to track down Emwazi and stop him taking the lives of others," he said.

But there is no joy or sense of victory from Louise Woodward-Styles. Her friend, British aid worker David Haines, was among the hostages whose beheading videos featured Emwazi. Others included American journalists Steven Sotloff and James Foley, U.S. aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig, British aid worker David Haines and Japanese journalist Kenji Goto.

'Jihadi John' victims: Journalists, aid workers making a difference

"There's just sadness," Woodward-Styles said. "It reminds you of the loss of Alan and just hoping it's closure for the family. But also I hope it reminds people that the issue of Syria is still ongoing, and not to forget the reasons why Alan was there."

As to Emwazi himself, Woodward-Styles added, "I don't think he deserves the attention that his apparent death is causing. I think he was a coward."

Breaking News! Ethiopian plane hijacker deemed mentally unsound： ፓይለቱ የተከሰሰበት ወንጀል ውድቅ ሊሆን ነው：：

ፓይለቱ የተከሰሰበት ወንጀል  ውድቅ ሊሆን ነው：：

A psychiatric evaluation has revealed that the co-pilot who hijacked an Ethiopian Airlines flight and re-routed it to Geneva in 2014 was not of sound mind when he did so. As a result, the Swiss Attorney General will drop all charges against him.

Although the man planned the hijacking beforehand, he was not competent to judge the situation at the time and experienced paranoia, according to the Attorney General’s office.

The co-pilot will stand trial before the Federal Criminal Court, which will decide on the therapeutic measures to be prescribed to him. For now, he remains in a closed psychiatric ward.

In February 2014, the 31-year-old Ethiopian hijacked a flight from Addis Ababa to Rome, rerouting it to Geneva with 202 people on board. He took control of the plane while the pilot was using the restroom.

After landing in Geneva, the co-pilot exited through the cockpit window and turned himself over to authorities. He then asked for political asylum in Switzerland as he felt threatened in his homeland.

In March, an Ethiopian court sentenced him to 19 years and six months in prison for hijacking. The Swiss authorities decided not to extradite him to Ethiopia in order to try him in Switzerland.

Airbus A350XWB visits Addis Ababa while ET’s first enters final assembly

African aviation history was made earlier this week when an Airbus A350XWB flew into Addis Ababa’s Bole International Airport to showcase the world’s latest state of the art wide body aircraft, and one which will soon join the Ethiopian Airlines fleet.
Coming from the Dubai Air Show, where Airbus had the aircraft on display, is the new bird now completing a mini world tour which notably includes a stop in Africa. Ethiopian Airlines now has 14 A350XWB’s on order. It was therefore only logical that Airbus would give the ET staff in Addis the opportunity to see this aircraft type as they prepare to take delivery of the first aircraft in a couple of months.

Wow Air Will Fly You From the U.S. to Paris for Just $99

The Icelandic carrier already flies direct from Dublin to Reykjavik, which means Irish passengers will be able to connect to the West Coast cities with an estimated total journey time of 13.5 hours.

Prices will not be confirmed until flights go on sale in January 2016, the airline has told Independent Travel, but lead-in rates are likely to be considerably lower than the €329 each-way fares quoted for direct flights from Dublin to LA by Aer Lingus.

Aer Lingus is to fly direct to LA from May 2016, while Ethiopian Airlines has been operating a direct service from Dublin Airport since June.

WOW's stopover time in Reyjkavik is likely to be two hours, the airline says, and the Reykjavik-US route will be serviced by three new Airbus A330-300s aircraft, the first wide-body planes in its fleet.

Low-cost transatlantic travel is gathering momentum as fuel prices drop and the economy recovers, with Norwegian set to fly direct from Cork Airport to Boston from next May using narrow-bodied Boeing 737-800s.

WOW's "ultra-low-cost" transatlantic services also connect Dublin, via Reykjavik, to Boston and Washington, with its lead-in fares gaining wide publicity.

Flights from Dublin to Boston are currently quoting from €149 each-way on its website (wowair.ie), for instance, though they rise to as much as €454 on certain dates, excluding baggage fees.

By contrast, as we publish, Ethiopian Airlines' website (ethiopianairlines.com) is quoting return fares to Los Angeles from €449 next May.

WOW Air allows one cabin bag of less than 5kg for free, while charging €15 each-way for cabin bags of 5-12kg and €31 for checked bags of up to 20kg.

WOW's capacity will more than double to 1.8 million next year, it says

Ethiopian Aviation Academy graduates 201 aviation professionals

Ethiopian Aviation Academy, the largest aviation academy in Africa, a full ICAO TRAINAIR Plus member and IATA authorized global training center, has graduated 24 pilots, 96 aviation maintenance technicians, 37 cabin crew and 44 marketing professionals at a ceremony held at Ethiopian Headquarters on Tuesday.The graduates include nationals from Rwanda. The training equipped the graduates with sufficient theoretical and practical knowledge to qualify them in their carrier as Aviation professionals, according to a press release issued by the airlines on Wednesday.
On the occasion, Group CEO Tewolde GebreMariam congratulated the new graduates and welcomed them to the airline’s fast growing and dedicated workforce, gave out diplomas to all the graduates, flight wings to graduating pilots and cabin crew and achievement award to graduates with outstanding academic performance.
Tewolde said, “Ethiopian Aviation Academy is the bedrock of the airline’s success. Self-sufficiency in training of all aviation Services expertise right from the inception of our business has been one of the major success factors of Ethiopian Airlines. That is why we have invested huge amount of time, energy and money for the expansion of our Aviation Academy to meet the demand for trained aviation expertise of the 21st century and to set the standard in high-level quality education demanded by the aviation profession.â€�
“We will continue to invest in the Academy to scale up its capacity both in scope and scale not only to meet our internal demand for more than 17,000 employees envisaged in our vision 2025 but also to address the critical shortage of trained and qualified aviation professionals prevailing in the continent of Africa. Shortage of trained and skilled human power is one of the major reasons why our continent is lagging behind in all measurements of development in the civil aviation sector,” he added.
Ethiopian Aviation Academy is certified by the Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority, the U.S Federal Aviation Administration, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), and IATA Safety Audit (IOSA).
The Academy has been providing training for pilots, maintenance technicians, cabin crew, and marketing personnel and in leadership development for Ethiopian and 50 different countries from all over the world for more than six- decade.

BREAKING: “Sniper” in San Diego Shuts Down Airport

There’s word that an “active shooter” in San Diego — specifically a “sniper” with a “high powered rifle” if the news media is to be trusted — is firing somewhat erratically into the air and as a result the local authorities have decided to shut down the local airport. The scene of the police standoff is directly below the approach path to San Diego’s local airport and officials are concerned that an errant bullet might hit an airliner and cause millions of dollars in damage or even some deaths. Stay tuned for more as we get it.