Ethiopian Airlines to facilitate visa hub service for Chinese travelers

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Ethiopia's flag carrier Ethiopian Airlines (ET) is to facilitate a visa hub service starting January 2019 for Chinese traveling to 35 African countries, an Ethiopian official said on Wednesday.

Tewolde Gebremariam, CEO of ET Group, said China's large geographical size has meant it's not always convenient for Chinese wanting to come to African countries to process their visa applications in Beijing.

Gebremariam said ET has the largest air network for African airlines in China, currently traveling to five Chinese destinations, helping Chinese and foreign nations living in various corners of China to directly travel to Ethiopia and beyond without the need to transit in Beijing.

"The plan is to have a visa hub in Addis Ababa, where Chinese visitors can directly travel from our five Chinese destinations to Addis Ababa and be able to apply for visas of 35 African countries through their embassies in Ethiopia," said Gebremariam.

Ethiopian Airlines currently has daily passenger flights from the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa to Guangzhou and Beijing and three times a week passenger flights to Chengdu as well as daily passenger and cargo flights to Hong Kong and Shanghai.

ET is also planning to start passenger flights to Shenzhen and cargo flights to Zhengzhou in the coming few months.

Source(s): Xinhua News Agency