(4 minutes read)
· Ethiopian Airlines popularly known as Ethiopian started direct flight to Tokyo’s Narita International Airport yesterday (February 15, 2022)
· Travellers can book their ticket through the net or special app created by the airlines
· The direct flight will add to the existing connections between African countries and Tokyo, and can help augment business relations between Ethiopia and Tokyo in particular and African region in general
Ethiopian Airlines popularly known as Ethiopian started direct flight to Tokyo’s Narita International Airport yesterday (February 15, 2022). Travellers can book their ticket through the net or special app created by the airlines. The direct flight will add to the existing connections between African countries and Tokyo, and can help augment business relations between Ethiopia and Tokyo in particular and the African region in general.
Ethiopian, judged as the foremost airline in Africa, has a history of 75 years. Ethiopian is the national airline of Ethiopia with its main hub at Bole International Airport. The airline has become one of the continent’s leading carriers, unrivalled in Africa for efficiency and operational success. It has also become one of Ethiopia’s major industries and serves 90 international destinations with 157 weekly international departures from Addis Ababa. It has a total of 410 weekly international departures worldwide.
Founded on December 30, 1945, by Emperor Haile Selassie, airline commenced operations on April 8, 1946, with a weekly service between Addis Ababa and Cairo. The airline started long-haul services to Frankfurt in 1958. It inaugurated its first jet service in January 1963 from Addis Ababa to Nairobi. The airline has code share agreements with a number of airlines including Gulf Air, Air One, Brussels Airlines, British Midland (BMI), Rwandair, and Saudi Arabian Airways.
During the pandemic, the services of airlines have come for special praise since the airline converted its passenger aircraft into freighters to carry goods across the world. It helped substantially in carrying freights from donor countries to pandemic affected countries in Africa. The airline was used by many countries including China to deliver relief materials including medicines and food materials to the African continent and other regions during the peak of pandemic.
Resumption of its service to Tokyo is considered to be a major step towards normalizing its operations to the pre-Covid-19 stage. It may also be noted that Ethiopian is the only airline in Africa, which could with stand competition from international airlines and to come out of the pandemic blues. A number of airlines, including South African Airlines in the Continent was forced to wind up their operations on account of heavy financial crunch. Most of the airlines still operating are dependent on government funding for their survival. Ethiopian that way stands apart.
