Ethiopian eyes 787 service to Hong Kong and new Asian services as Africa-Asia market booms

Ethiopian Airlines will further strengthen itself in the nascent but rapidly growing Africa-Asia market by using its new Boeing 787 Dreamliners to open new routes - potentially in China, Malaysia and Singapore - reduce costs and align its overall fleet strategy to better serve existing Asian destinations. The geography of Ethiopian's hub in Addis Ababa allows the carrier to offer as efficient or more efficient connections than those through Middle East hubs. Ethiopian's African network is also unrivaled in the number of destinations served, and the booming times are seeing Ethiopian consider exercising 787 options and accelerating deliveries, slots permitting. Elsewhere in its route network, whose capacity is growing at 30% a year, Ethiopian next year will commence services to Toronto and in 2013 will increase capacity to Washington Dulles by deploying 777-300ERs.

Ethiopian will become the first carrier in Africa and Europe to operate 787s when it takes the delivery of its first 787-8 in 2Q2012.