The carrier started operations in 1946, a year after it was founded, and is considered to be among a trio of sub-Saharan aviation giants, alongside South African Airways and Kenyan Airways.

It serves 56 international destinations with 210 weekly international departures from its Addis Ababa hub and a total of 555 weekly international departures worldwide.

On its website the company says that it hopes to increase revenue to one billion dollars and to boost the number of international destinations it serves to 60 in 2010.

Ethiopian Airlines, which says it employs more than 5,000 people, currently has a fleet of 37 aircrafts and 35 more on order.

Last week Boeing said it had ordered 10 737-800 jets in a deal valued at 767 million dollars.

Until Flight 409 lost contact with Beirut airport control shortly after takeoff early Monday and crashed into the Mediterranean, Ethiopian had a better safety record than any other African airline except for South African Airways.

"Plane crashes caused by pilot error or maintenance negligence do not exist in Ethiopian Airlines' history," Ethiopian Airlines CEO Girma Wake told reporters in Addis Ababa Monday.

Apart from an emergency landing earlier this month that left no casualties, two incidents involving the company go back more than 10 years.

Earlier this month one of the company's 757s made an emergency landing at Malta's airport while on its way from Addis Ababa to Rome.

The pilot reported a problem with one of the two engines. The passengers continued their journey via London Heathrow while the plane and its crew remained in Malta.

In November 1996 Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 was hijacked between Addis Ababa and Nairobi by three Ethiopians seeking political asylum.

The aircraft crashed into the Indian Ocean off the Comoros when it ran out of fuel, killing 125 of the 175 people on board.

In September 1988 one of the airline's Boeing 737s made a crash landing at Bahar Dar in Ethiopia after birds entered both engines during takeoff. Thirty-one of the 105 people on board were killed.

Monday's crash may be the airline's third, but the other two could not be blamed on the carrier, industry expert and editorial director of AirGuideOnline, Aram Gesar, told AFP.

"It's the third deadly crash they've had in their history but you can't really blame a bird strike or a terrorist attack on the airline, the pilot or the aircraft," he said.