Ethiopian Airlines will add three more Asian destinations to its route map in the first half of 2017.
The national carrier will start flying to Singapore, Jakarta and Chengdu as part of a record-breaking phase of growth that will see it launch a total of seven new destinations in the first six months of the year.
Other additions include Norway’s capital Oslo and three more African destinations: Victoria Falls (Zimbabwe), Antananarivo (Madagascar), Conakry (Guinea).
“Africa’s share of global aviation is currently the smallest at only around 3%. As the largest airline group in the continent, we are highly concerned by this low base of air connectivity and are therefore setting record expansion in progress,” said Ethiopian’s group CEO, Tewolde GebreMariam.
“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.”
These new announcements follow the addition of three new international destinations in 2016: Moroni (Comoros), Windhoek (Namibia) and Newark (US). By the end of the June 2017, Ethiopian’s international network will have expanded to 98 destinations.
