By CGTN's Liu Yang

Africa’s largest airline, Ethiopian Airlines, has launched three times their weekly flights to Chengdu, China as of May 22.

Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province, is the 7th largest city in China. It is the country's western center of logistics, commerce, science and technology, as well as a hub of transportation, manufacturing and communication.  

CGTN Photo

Chengdu is also a major hub for Air China, Ethiopian Airlines’ Star Alliance partner.  With the new flights underway, passengers from Ethiopia's vast and growing network in Africa will be able to quickly connect to dozens of cities in China partnership with Air China, including Shenzhen, Kunming, Hangzhou, Xiamen, Wuhan, Changsha, and Urumqi.

Group CEO Ethiopian Airlines, Mr. Tewolde GebreMariam, said: “We are glad to launch services to Chengdu, our fifth gateway to China. Since our first flight 43 years ago, China has been a key market and it is now the largest per country market in our system. Using the geocentric location advantage of our hub in Addis Ababa we are connecting China, the world's second largest economy and Africa’s biggest trade and investment partner, with 54 cities in the continent of Africa. With the addition of our newly launched flight to Chengdu, we shall offer the best and fastest connectivity options with a total of 34 weekly flights to China, operated with the latest and most comfortable B787 and B777 aircraft. Our Chinese customers will also enjoy seamless connection on Ethiopian vast intra African network and farther to São Paulo in Brazil.”

CGTN Photo‍

Ethiopian is investing to make Addis Ababa a Chinese friendly hub airport for the continent.  It now has Mandarin translators and signage available at the airport transit area and in the Cloud Nine Business Class Lounge.  Chinese New Year is also marked every year at Addis Abba Airport.

Ethiopian was the first African carrier and the fourth in the world to fly to China back in 1973. In addition to the already launched three weekly flights to Chengdu, Ethiopian currently operates daily nonstop flights to Beijing, 10 weekly nonstop to Guangzhou, and 6 weekly nonstop to Hong Kong.