Ethiopian Celebrates 40th Anniversary of Flights to China
Ethiopian Airlines celebrates anniversaries of inaugural flights to 14 destinations in the month of November. Notable among them is the inaugural flight to Beijing operated with Boeing 720 on November 7, 1973, thus marking 40 years of uninterrupted service to China.
A pioneer in African aviation, Ethiopian was the first African carrier and the fourth in the world to fly to China. Since the first flight 40 years ago, China has been a key market and continues to be one of the most important destinations for Ethiopian. Currently, Ethiopian has non-stop daily flights to Beijing and Guangzhou. In total, Ethiopian serves 25 weekly flights to four destinations in China, which will grow to 28 weekly flights at the end of the month.
“The start of flights to China 40 years ago marks an important milestone in the history of the airline. We were there at the very beginning when China started opening up to the world and have ever since been providing reliable services to the country. With the exponential growth in overall ties between China and Africa in recent years, we have significantly scaled up our operations to the country. China-Africa relations are forecasted to grow significantly in the coming years, and Ethiopian Airlines will be there to cater to the needs of the travelling public by availing the best possible connections to Africa, using the most modern aircraft”, said CEO Tewolde Gebremariam.
The month of November is also significant in Ethiopian Airlines’ history with the largest number of flight inaugurals, including Abidjan, Abuja, Accra, Brazzaville, Bujumbura, Brazzaville, Entebbe, Guangzhou, Juba, Kuwait and Maputo.
Flights to Bujumbura were inaugurated 25 years ago on November 14, 1978, and to Brazzaville 20 years ago, on November 1, 1983. Since its humble beginning in 1945, Ethiopian has always been dedicated to “Bringing Africa Together,” “Connecting Africa to the World” and now embodies “The New Spirit of Africa”, a continent confident in its ability and promising future.