Emirates strengthens presence in East Africa

Effective 27th March, Emirates will start flying to Addis Ababa with three flights a week. Subsequently Emirates' Dubai-Addis Ababa service will be enhanced to daily operations from 1st 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.

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 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.

Sheikh Ahmed noted: "Emirates' network in the Middle East, which comprises 13 destinations served by 140 weekly flights, can be leveraged by Ethiopia's trading community to boost its business prospects."

Ethiopia also shares strong trading links with China and other Far East countries, from which it imports household consumer goods, electronics, textiles and gold.

Emirates will link Ethiopia to 11 Far East destinations including Shanghai, Hong Kong and soon-to-be-launched Beijing in China.

Emirates flight EK 723 will take off from the Dubai International Airport every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 08:25 hours and arrive in Addis Ababa at 11:30 hours.

Return flight EK 724 will depart Addis Ababa on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 19:35 hours and arrive in Dubai at 00:45 hours the following day.