Ethiopia Airlines’ flights to EA destinations to continue, officer confirms
What you need to know:
- Like several major airlines across the world, Ethiopian Airlines has grounded its Boeing 737 MAX 8 Jets following the fatal crash which killed 157 people on Sunday but the airline says its flights to Tanzania has never been affected in any way.
Arusha. Ethiopian Airlines flights to Tanzania would not be affected by the grounding of its remaining Boeing 737 Max 8 jets.
The airline says all its flights to Tanzania will remain as well as those in the East African Community (EAC) countries.
"The flights will remain," affirmed the airline's team leader in media relations, Mr Biniyam Demssie, in a communication to The Citizen from Addis Ababa yesterday.
Currently, Ethiopian Airlines operates two flights a day to Tanzania, landing at the Julius Nyerere, Abeid Amani Karume and Kilimanjaro international airports.
The flights to Tanzania originate from Addis Ababa's Bole International airport directly to the three destinations.
However, the Kilimanjaro International Airport (KIA) and Zanzibar destinations are served as one round trip.
Julius Nyerere International Airport (JNIA) in Dar es Salaam is served directly from Addis Ababa with no stop over mid way as it used to be the case in the past.
A Boeing 737 MAX 8 jet belonging to the Ethiopian Airlines crashed near Addis Ababa on Sunday morning killing 157 people on board.
No Tanzanian was aboard the ill-fated aircraft but Kenya had the largest casualties of 32 of its nationals who died and one each for Uganda and Rwanda, the other EAC states.
Early this week Africa's largest airline joined others in the world to ground the Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes, pending investigations on the tragedy.
But, Mr Demssie said there would be change on the flight schedules to the East African region even with the grounding of some planes.
The airline operates four scheduled flights a day to Nairobi and Entebbe each, three to Juba in South Sudan and one each to Bujumbura and Kigali.
The Addis Ababa-Nairobi is among the five densest routes of the Ethiopian Airlines.
The route handles multiple scheduled flights operated by the airline between the two cities.
The other densest route operated by the Ethiopian connects its Addis Ababa's Bole International Airport with Johannesburg where the ill-fated plane originated earlier on Sunday
Other densest routes managed by the Ethiopian, Africa's greatest airline, are Addis Ababa-Dubai, Addis Ababa - Beijing and Addis Ababa- Guangzhou.
The crash, the third worst for the carrier in 23 years, happened as Ethiopian Airlines remains the fastest growing airline in Africa with a fleet of 111 aircraft.
The 73-year old carrier has the lion's share of the pan African passenger and cargo network and flying to more than 120 international destinations.
According to its website, the carrier registered an average growth of 25 per cent in the past seven years alone.
