Media Release
30 January 2006
Emirates Strengthens Network with Another City
Emirates, one of the world's fastest growing international airlines, today reinforced its commitment to East Africa with
the announcement of a launch of services to the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa.
From March 27, Emirates will start flying to Addis Ababa with three flights a week. The Dubai-Addis Ababa service will
be enhanced to daily operations from December 2006.
Emirates currently serves East Africa with double-daily flights to Nairobi and daily flights to Entebbe and
Dar-es-Salaam. With the addition of Addis Ababa, Emirates' East Africa network will be boosted to four destinations
served by 31 flights per week.
To Addis Ababa, Emirates will operate its Airbus A330-200 aircraft equipped with 12, 42 and 183 seats in First, Business
and Economy class, and a belly-hold cargo capacity of 17 tonnes.
Emirates' direct flights from Dubai to East Africa, as well as Johannesburg, offer connections from the airline's four
daily flights from New Zealand
His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive, Emirates Airline and Group, said: "I am
pleased to announce yet another destination on Emirates' rapidly expanding network. Our 78-strong destination network
will see the addition of several new gateways in 2006, including Abidjan and Addis Ababa in Africa; Thiruvananthapuram
and Kolkata (Calcutta) in the Indian sub-continent; Hamburg and Copenhagen in Europe; and Nagoya and Beijing in the Far
East."
Sheikh Ahmed added: "Trade between Dubai and East Africa, a long-standing trade partner of the U.A.E., has registered a
steady growth over the last few years. Several countries in the East African region have been increasingly turning to
the U.A.E for procurement of their consumer and capital goods. I am confident that the Emirates service between Dubai
and Addis Ababa will add further momentum to this trade process."
In 2004 the total non-oil trade between Dubai and Ethiopia stood at USD 76.14 million.
Ethiopia's economy is predominantly driven by agriculture with cereals, pulses, coffee, oilseeds and sugarcane forming
the bulk of the nation's produce. Key export partners of the East African country range from Germany and Italy in
Europe, to the U.A.E, Saudi Arabia and Japan in the Middle and Far East regions.
ENDS