Ethiopian Launches Flight to South Sudan

Resumes domestic, regional flights

Ethiopian Airlines announced yesterday that it had launched a new flight service to Malakal, South Sudan, effective as of 17 June 2011. Ethiopian will provide the new flight services four times a week.

The new flight service to the oil rich town of Malakal is Ethiopian’s second destination to the South Sudan and the 62nd international destination.

“The new flight services to Malakal provide the best connectivity and convenience for business people as well as the general public of the South Sudan,” Tewolde Gebre-Mariam, CEO of Ethiopian Airlines, said.

Meanwhile, the Ethiopian Airlines announced Saturday that it had resumed all domestic flights to to Axum, Bahir Dar, Gondar, Dire Dawa, Humera Jijiga Lalibela, Makelle and Shire and regional flights to Khartoum and Djibouti which had been temporarily suspended because of the volcanic ash cloud as of Monday, 15 June 2011.

The decision to resume flights was made based on meteorological forecasts which indicated that the ash cloud from the volcanic eruption in Eritrea had cleared. And the Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority had confirmed that the northern Ethiopian airspace was now safe to fly according to Abebe Angessa, director of Ethiopian Domestic Market and Sales Service.

Ethiopian is making more than 60 domestic flights each week.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency