7 new destinations by June ’17

Ethiopian Airlines is working to add seven new destinations to its network from February to June 2017. It’s targeting 120 international destinations by 2025.

TT Bureau

The airline is looking to launch new service to Victoria Falls (Zimbabwe), Antananarivo (Madagascar), Conakry (Guinea), Oslo (Norway), Chengdu (China), Jakarta (Indonesia) and Singapore. With the addition of these destinations, Ethiopian Airlines will have service from Addis Ababa to 98 different international cities across the world and just 22 short of their goal of 120.

Tewolde GebreMariam, Group CEO, Ethiopian Airlines, said, “Africa’s share of the global aviation is the smallest which is only around three per cent. As the largest airline group in the continent, we are highly concerned on the low base of air connectivity in the continent and we are setting record expansion to enable Africans enjoy safe, reliable and economical air connectivity both within the continent and between the continent and the rest of the world.

“Looking beyond the current economic slowdown especially in the oil export dependent economies of Africa, we firmly believe that the continent will become the magnet for foreign direct investment, trade and tourism, which are the engines of air travel growth and in turn efficient air connectivity also drives socio economic development and we are happy to contribute our share in the 21st century African transformation. In the just ended calendar year alone, new flights to Moroni (Comoros), WindHoek (Namibia) and Newark (United States) were launched, as well as three cities in Ethiopia: Hawassa, Kebridahar and Dembidolo. Ethiopian is one of the fastest growing airlines in the world, and we are expanding our wings every year.”