Our top five stories on Routes Weekly: WOW's Indian expansion; China to relax international regulations; strong half for easyJet; UAE and US deal; Ethiopian adds Manchester and more.
Routesonline analyses the African aviation industry, taking a monthly look at the top routes served and revealing the airlines that are dominating the market. We also rank the top ten airports by available seat capacity and examine the most common aircraft used.
Ethiopian Airlines' new five times weekly link to Oslo from its Addis Ababa hub will operate via Stockholm’s Arlanda Airport from March 26, 2017 using a two-class, 270-seat Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner equipment.
According to industry sources, it is understood that Ethiopian Airlines will introduce a new link to Victoria Falls from Addis Ababa in the first half of next year, bringing new connectivity options into the Zimbabwe market.
A mix of existing and new airline partners officially signed-up to serve the fast-expanding Chinese gateway during a behind closed doors meeting on the opening day of business at World Routes and it is our understanding that there is more news to follow, with at least one other airline set to announce its expansion into Chengdu in the coming days.
Ethiopian Airlines has come a long way during its first 70 years – and it has plenty of groundbreaking plans for the decades to come. Gary Noakes reports for Routes News.
The switch of US airports from John F Kennedy International to Newark Liberty International for the long-haul connection from Addis Ababa via Lomé in Togo, is a logical move and will allow the carrier to take advantage of the significant hub operation of Star Alliance partner, United Airlines at Newark.
An estimated 250,000 passengers a year are flying between India and Ethiopia with almost 90 per cent of the demand in the first half of 2015 taking advantage of Ethiopian Airlines’ pan-African network to connect via Addis Ababa’s Bole International Airport.
The return of Africa’s largest carrier to the southern city, its third destination in South Africa, can be directly linked to recent World Routes forums, and of course, the hosting of this year’s event in Durban.
The Star Alliance member has been serving the Cameroon market since the early 1970s after first introducing flights to Douala in 1971 and has been offering uninterrupted service since 2003.
The largest airline in Africa, Ethiopian Airlines has announced that it has finalised preparations to start flights to Cape Town – its second destination in South Africa, and Gaborone in Botswana.
The new link will provide the first regular link between East Africa and Dublin and will mark the return of flights between the Irish capital and Los Angeles, a market last served by Aer Lingus in November 2008. This will strengthen Ireland’s connectivity to the west coast of the United States, with California a major market for Irish tourism.
The airline has placed an order for 20 737 MAX 8s with options and purchase rights for a further 15 aircraft. It is the largest single Boeing order by number of aircraft from an African carrier and was previously unidentified in the Boeing order backlog as being placed by an unidentified customer.
The Spanish capital city will be linked to its Addis Ababa Bole International Airport hub through Rome using a Boeing 767-300ER and will increase Ethiopian’s international network to 83 destinations covering five continents.
