Ethiopian airline puts on flights from Addis Ababa

The first direct flight from Africa to Shanghai by Ethiopian Airlines was made on March 30 when a Boeing 787 Dreamliner landed at Shanghai Pudong International Airport after a nine-hour flight from Addis Ababa.

Flights on the route take the airline's number of weekly flights to China to 28, said Tewolde Gebremariam, Ethiopian Airlines Group CEO. Other Chinese cities it flies to are Beijing, Guangzhou and Hong Kong.

The airline plans to put on more flights to Guangzhou, and will add flights to and from Chengdu, Sichuan province, he said, adding that it aimed to increase its weekly flights to China to 35.

"It is really fascinating for us to see our network in China is growing very fast, along with the growth of trade, investment and tourism between China and Africa."

The Dreamliner the airline is using on the Shanghai-Addis Ababa route has 24 business seats and 246 economy class seats.

With the new flight, Shanghai will be connected to 66 cities across Africa, including Abuja, Harare, Johannesburg, Lagos, Libreville, Luanda, Maputo and Nairobi, via Addis Ababa.

"Shanghai is the economic and financial hub of a booming Chinese economy, and our direct flights will promote increased mobility of people and goods, which is critically important for the socio-economic development of an expanding society," Gebremariam said.

China surpassed France to become South Africa's fourth largest source of tourists in 2012, Xinhuanet.com reported. The number of Chinese tourists going to Kenya in June and July last year to watch the annual wild beast migration rose 10 percent year-on-year, it said.

Ethiopian Airlines has the youngest and most modern fleet of all African airlines and flies to 78 international destinations on five continents, Gebremariam said.

wang_ying@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily Africa Weekly?04/04/2014 page3)