The Board of Directors for the Export-Import Bank of the United States’ (EXIM) first transaction guarantees $281 million from the Private Export Funding Corporation (PEFCO) to Ethiopian Airlines Group. These monies will finance the export of several Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft.

It will also support 1,600 American jobs across Washington, Indiana, and North Carolina.

The first of this fleet were delivered in September 2022 and the remaining aircrafts are expected to be delivered by the end of March 2023.

“Engineers and scientists in the United States created the aircraft. This transaction affirms EXIM’s support of the American aviation industry and supply chain and will help shape our competitiveness around the world, while creating hundreds of jobs,” said EXIM President and Chair Reta Jo Lewis. 

“Today we are ensuring that 1,600 hardworking Americans will be able to keep and maintain their good-paying jobs. This transaction also advances one of our founding charter mandates to expand and improve commercial ties across the Horn of Africa, where we must do all that, we can to remain competitive and influential.”