Ethiopian Airlines to add D.C. service
Ethiopian Airlines on June 1 will add three weekly direct flights between Washington Dulles and Lomé, Togo.
The flights will begin and end in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The new route will supplement the carrier's current D.C. connection to Addis Ababa via Dublin.
"With the three flights starting in June, that will increase our weekly frequency from seven to 10 flights out of Dulles -- seven direct to Addis, which will serve East and Central African cities, and the rest to Lomé" to serve West Africa, Ethiopian Airlines regional director for the U.S. Samson Arega told Business Travel News. "We are excited about this new development."
The carrier chose Lomé -- which is the connection point for flights between both Newark and New York-JFK and Addis Ababa -- because it is a key connector for West African cities via regional carrier Asky Airlines.
The additional flights will restore Ethiopian Airlines' U.S. capacity nearly to pre-pandemic levels, in terms of the number of weekly flights it will offer between the U.S. and Africa. The carrier also has restored service through Chicago, Newark and New York-JFK, added Arega. The missing city is Houston, service to which was suspended in May 2020 because of the Covid-19 outbreak.
"We still plan to resume it, but we don't have a timeline for when it will be in the system," Arega said.
Arega said one of his key priorities is increasing the carrier's corporate clients. He claimed that Ethiopian offers the shortest route compared to other airlines to Africa from North America and that the carrier flies to 60 cities in Africa.
"We believe we haven't fully tapped that market," he said. "We were predominantly focused on ethnic travel. And now, as an aviation powerhouse in Africa, we are more focused on securing big corporate clients. … We will reach out aggressively to major companies in the United States with an interest in Africa to fulfill their air travel needs."
