The 700 member Ethiopian Airline Pilots Association told Capital that it secured a loan agreement with an unnamed private bank to provide financing at a 9.75 interest rate over a 25 year period to purchase homes or condos.
They can also purchase cars at the same rate with a 15 percent down payment or 40 percent for used cars over 10 years. According to the deal, the pilots must have a 5 percent deposit before getting home loans.
To buy the house the pilots must have their salary deposited in a private bank. Currently the airline uses the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia for deposits of over 80 million birr every month for its 1,200 pilots.
Yeshwas Fantahun (Captain), from the Ethiopian Airline Pilots Association said this is good news for the pilots.
“We pilots are proud of the work we do and want to work hard transporting people to their destinations safely but the reality is most of us are in rental houses which continue to go up in price.”
“As an association we are working to benefit pilots so finally we have find the right partner to offer competitive rates to our members.”
The association, which gave 3.8 million birr to the families of eight cabin crew members of the recent Boeing plane crash, is currently on the verge of starting a school feeding program at Bole Bulbula School for 80 children.
Apart from the pilots, currently six private banks and Commercial Bank of Ethiopia have offered documents allowing them to provide loans for permanent Ethiopian Airline staff so they can buy homes and cars.
The new loan system which is expected to be implemented in the next Ethiopian year will incorporate over 12,000 permanent airline staff. Previously Ethiopian Airlines constructed houses and gave them to its staff, through its own loan system.