Ethiopian Airlines adds India flights

Ethiopian Airlines will fly double daily flights to Mumbai and Delhi from its Addis Ababa hub in summer schedule and is expanding its code share partnership with Air India, the airline announced today.

Ethiopian Airlines is the largest airline from Africa and is a member of Star Alliance. The airline will operate second daily flight to Mumbai from March 29. The second daily flight to Delhi will be announced upon revision in air service agreement between India and Ethiopia due later this month. " We also have plans to launch flights to other metros including Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad following revision in the agreement," said Tadese Tilahun, regional director of Ethiopian Airlines.

The expansion at a time when South Africa Airways has announced closure of its direct Mumbai flight in summer. Kenya Airways also pulled out of Delhi last November but will be operating double daily to Mumbai in summer.

About 65-70 percent of its passengers from India fly onward from Addis Ababa to other African destinations. Tilahun says the new flights will enable Indian passengers to connect to Europe and US with a halt in Addis Ababa. On average it flies about 300 passengers daily from India

CEO of Ethiopian Airlines Group, Tewolde Gebremariam, said in a statement, "We are very bullish on the prospects of Africa-India market. By increasing our frequency to double daily to Mumbai and expanding our codeshare agreement with Air India, fellow Star Alliance partner with the inclusion of domestic points in India and major destinations in Africa, we aim to become the airline of choice for travel between Africa and India."