Addis Ababa - Ethiopian Airlines successfully weathered the Covid pandemic by shifting its strategy, but Africa’s only profitable carrier still faces “real challenges” in sourcing parts and staying competitive at a time of inflation, its CEO told AFP. The 2022-2023 financial year ending June 30 “was a very successful year,” Mesfin Tasew said in an interview in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa. “We carried 13.7 million passengers, which is a 57-percent growth compared to the previous year and 10 percent higher than pre-Covid. We also carried 740,000 tonnes of cargo, which is nearly double pre-Covid,” he said. The state-owned company generated $6.1 billion in revenue, up 20 percent compared to the previous year and nearly 50 percent more than pre-Covid earnings. The airline turned to freight when passenger traffic fell, including converting some of its passenger aircraft to transport cargo. “The figures indicate that we have fully recovered from the impacts of Covid,” said Mesfin, who was appointed to the job in March 2022.