africanflyer

Ethiopian Airlines, according to posted schedules, will return to Sanaa, Yemen with four weekly flights effective the end of March. Flights will be operated on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays via Djibouti using B73Ws.

ET306 ADD - JIB: 1015 - 1115
ET306 JIB - SAH: 1215 - 1315
ET307 SAH - JIB: 1645 - 1745
ET307 JIB - ADD: 1845 - 1945

Ethiopian Airlines and World Airways signed an agreement for the lease of two DC-10Fs to be operated on behalf of Ethiopian Cargo between Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and Brussels, Belgium beginning January 2007. One aircraft will be leased for six months, and the other for three.

Ethiopian Airlines has signed 5-year a lease agreement with International Lease Financing Corporation (ILFC) for a B763. The aircraft, which was delivered today, is configured with 30 Business and 190 Economy class seats.

Ethiopian Airlines’ CEO was quoted on Saturday during a press conference detailing the airline’s year performance for 2005/2006 that it plans to open new open routes to Bahrain, Monrovia in Liberia and Zanzibar, all three cities that were once served by the airline.

Ethiopian Airlines is set to begin service to Juba, Sudan effective November 16. The route, its second to Sudan, was originally set to start earlier this year. Flights will be operated 3x per week on Tusdays, Thursdays and Saturdays using B732 aircraft.

ET490 ADD - JUB: 945 - 1115
ET491 JUB - ADD: 1200 - 1330

Ethiopian Airlines has taken re-delivery of its passenger-to-cargo converted B752. The aircraft, which has served the airline since 1991, joins an existing B75F that was initially delivered as a freighter. Conversion work was undertaken by Precision Conversions in Everett, Washington, USA.

Ethiopian Airlines announced that it has made the necessary arrangements for the lease of an MD-11F aircraft that would ply the Addis Ababa-Brussels route during the upcoming January-May peak horticultural export season. The aircraft will operate daily on the route.

According to posted schedules, Ethiopian will add a fifth weekly flight between Addis Ababa and London Heathrow as of the end of October. The new flight will be operated on Mondays using B752 aircraft.

ET700 ADD - FCO: 900 - 1320
ET700 FCO - LHR: 1415 - 1555
ET701 LHR - ADD: 2100 - 800

Following the end of hostilities in Lebanon, air links between its capital city Beirut and African cities are being reopened as follows:
- Cairo, Egypt: EgyptAir will resume services on Friday September 8 with a 4x per week frequency with flights operated on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Middle East Airlines will operate daily few flights per week until the resumption of daily services on September 15
- Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: Ethiopian Airlines will resume services on September 12 with a 2x per week frequency. Flights will be operated out of Addis on Mondays and Wednesdays
- Casablanca, Morocco: Royal Air Maroc will resume services on September 10 with a 2x per week frequency. Flights will be operated out of Casablanca on Sundays and Thursdays.
- Abidjan, Ivory Coast; Lagos, Nigeria; Kano, Nigeria and Accra, Ghana: Middle East Airlines will resume services to these cities as of September 8, with frequencies eventually becoming 3x per week to Abidjan, Lagos and Accra; and Kano receiving a single weekly flight.

Ethiopian Airlines announced a deal it signed with Atlasjet of Turkey for the lease of a single B752 in all-economy configuration effective September 13, 2006. The aircraft, which will be operated on an ACMI-lease (but with Ethiopian cabin crew), will remain with the airline for a period of 6 months and operated on African routes.

Further changes have been made and new flights added to Ethiopian’s upcoming winter timetable:

- Lagos, Nigeria will see an increase from the current daily services to 11x per week with the introduction of night flights operated on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays using B752 aircraft. The new flights will continue on to Accra, Ghana, doubling service that city.

ET917 ADD - LOS: 140 - 500
ET917 LOS - ACC: 600 - 600
ET916 ACC - LOS: 2000 - 2200
ET916 LOS - ADD: 2300 - 600

- Dakar, Sénégal will see an increase of service to 6x per week from the current 4x with the split of flights between day time and night time services as follows:

ET919 ADD - DKR: 2235 - 600 Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays
ET918 DKR - ADD: 1815 - 750

ET909 ADD - DKR: 830 - 1700 Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays
ET908 DKR - ADD: 720 - 2100

- N’Djamena will get an increase of flights to 5x per week from the current 3x per week schedule:

ET929 ADD - NDJ: 1015 - 1155 Thursdays, Sundays
ET928 NDJ - ADD: 1425 - 2000

ET919 ADD - NDJ: 2235 - 0015 Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays
ET918 NDJ - ADD: 205 - 750

- Bamako, Mali will see an increase of service to 6x per week from the current 3x with the split of flights between day time and night time services as follows:

ET919 ADD - BKO: 2235 - 325 Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays
ET918 BKO - ADD: 2050 - 750

ET909 ADD - BKO: 830 - 1425 Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays
ET908 BKO - ADD: 955 - 2100

Ethiopian Airlines plans to add Kolkata, India to its network which already includes Mumbai and Delhi, according to the Ethiopian Ambassador to India. Ethiopian currently flies to Mumbai 5x per week while Delhi is served 3x per week.

According to Ethiopian Airlines’ posted timetables, the airline is set to pull out of London Gatwick as of the end of August. It will however maintain its 4x per week flights to Heathrow.

Ethiopian Airlines is reportedly negotiating the lease of two ex-Varig B772s for a period of five years. If finalized, the first example is expected to join the airline in a month’s time, in time for the return of the currently wet-leased World Airways MD-11.

Edit: negotiations have been reported as being unfruitful

Based on Ethiopian Airlines’ posted schedules, the following enhancements are set to be made to the airline’s upcoming winter schedule which takes effect at the end of october:- Dubai will get a second daily flight which will be operated during the day according to the following schedule (the existing daily will maintain the current schedule):

ET602 ADD - DXB: 800 - 1245 Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Saturdays
ET603 DXB - ADD: 1915 - 2200
ET620 ADD - DXB: 1000 - 1445 Tuesdays, Thursdays, Sundays
ET621 DXB - ADD: 1600 - 1845

This addition will be above the three extra night flights operated per week within 30 minutes from the overnight dailies, bringing its total weekly flights to DXB to 17.

- Khartoum will see an increase from the current 7x per week to 10x per week. The overnight roundtrip flight will be operated daily, while the daytime flight that continues on to Cairo will be trimmed to 3x per week from 4x (Cairo in turn will see its frequency trimmed from 7x per week to 6x per week at three flights each during daytime and nigthtime)

- Johannesburg will see an increase from the current 5x per week to daily services using B73W aircraft

- Nairobi will see a change in service whereby it will have two set daily flights, one leaving Addis in the morning, and one leaving mid-late afternoon per the current schedules, with a short turnaround at Nairobi. Flights will be operated with a mix of B73W and B752 aircraft

Ethiopian Airlines’ planned service between Nairobi and Entebbe, and Nairobi and Bujumbura, which the airline had operated for years until a recent lull, has been faced with lengthy (re)approval delays from Kenya Civil Aviation Authority, the Kenyan government body which oversees the licensing of airline services, effectively grounding plans by Ethiopian to start services as of the begining of June. Under Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) to which all concerned parties belong, such services were to have been approved and operated without any restrictions from member states.

ATWOnline reports that Ethiopian Airlines has wet-leased an A332 to join its fleet on June 12, and an MD-11 effective July 1. The former will be leased from and operated by Star Airlines, while the latter will be leased from and operated by World Airways, for a period of six months. This follows the cancellation of the intended lease of two ex-Malaysia Airlines B747s due to their unavailbility within the desired period. The airline wishes to replace these newly leased aircraft with either two B777s or two B763s.

Ethiopian Airlines will add an extra four flights to Nairobi from Addis Ababa starting the first week of June, increasing the frequency between the cities to 14 flights per week from the current 10. The new flights, operated out of Addis just twenty minutes after the existing morning flights, will operate on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and will continue on to Kigali in Rwanda, with rights to carry passengers between Nairobi and Kigali.

Furthermore, Ethiopian will route four of its existing daily flights to Nairobi to continue on to Bujumbura, the capital of Burundi. Flights will be operated on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays with rights to carry passengers between Nairobi and Bujumbura.

Ethiopian Airlines will start daily services between Entebbe, Uganda and Nairobi, Kenya effective June 4. Flights will be operated using B73W aircraft.

ET820 EBB - NBO: 1300 - 1410
ET821 NBO - EBB: 1600 - 1700

Ethiopian Airlines is adding a second daily flight between Addis Ababa and Dubai begining the first week of June, which will run until the first week of August. The second flight, which will be operated using a B73W aircraft, will complement the existing B763 service. The schedule for the new flight is as follows (operated within 20 minutes of the existing flight):

ET602 ADD - DXB: 2220 - 305
ET603 DXB - ADD: 425 - 715

According to posted schedules, Ethiopian Airlines will move two of its four weekly frequencies between Addis Ababa and London Heathrow to overnight service out of Addis effective the first week of June. Currently, all Heathrow-bound flights, which make a stop at Rome Fiumicino, leave Addis at or around noon. This change will further streamline connections between ET’s African destinations and Heathrow. Returning flights will maintain the existing schedule.

ET700 ADD - FCO: 0035 - 545 Saturdays
ET700 FCO - LHR: 645 - 835

ET700 ADD - FCO: 115 - 625 Sundays
ET700 FCO - LHR: 725 - 915

Ethiopian Airlines is reportedly interested in acquiring up to 12 regional jet aircraft to upgrade its existing domestic fleet which is composed of Fokker-50s and DHC-8s, as well as to serve thin regional routes. ET is interested to provide 50-seater replacements to its domestic fleet, while making 70-100 seaters available to regional routes. Aircraft under consideration are the ERJ145/170s and CRJs.

The airline would also decide soon as to whether it would acquire an additional five Boeing 787s, which would be delivered during the years 2012-2013, in addition to the already firmed up order for ten aircraft slated for delivery between 2008 and 2011. Of the firmed up examples, the aircraft versions would likely be split into 6x 787-8s and 4x 787-9s.

Ethiopian Airlines has leased two B744s for a period of 5 years. The aircraft, both ex-Malaysia Airlines combis, will join the airline starting this summer and will be deployed on the Addis Ababa to Lagos, Dubai, Brazzaville, Kinshasa and Luanda routes.

Ethiopian Airlines has announced that it is to withdraw its fleet of three DHC-6 from domestic service citing high maintenance costs associated with the aging aircraft. The Twin Otters are currently used on services to cities having inadequate airfields to accomodate the Fokker 50.

Ethiopian Airlines introduced e-ticketing on flights between Addis Ababa and Nairobi on February 20. This service is slated to be expanded to the rest of its destinations in time before the deadline set by IATA.