DHAKA, Dec 12, 2023 (BSS) - Ethiopian airline has decided to commence flight between Addis Ababa and Dhaka from March 8 next as Bangladesh and Ethiopia, known as African aviation hub, signed an air service agreement (ASA) last week to establish direct air link.

"The Airline has chosen March 8, the International Women Day, to commence the Addis Ababa-Dhaka-Addis Ababa direct flight. Initially it will operate five weekly flights," Managing Director of Rhythm Group, the airline's General Sales Agent (GSA) in Bangladesh, Shohag Hossain told BSS today.

He said Ethiopian transport minister and Ethiopian airlines group CEO will visit Bangladesh on boarding the inaugural flight of the African airline giant.

"The route will offer various connecting flight in compatible fare to the Bangladeshi expatriates as the airline, the biggest network in Africa, connects all major cities of Europe and North America from Addis Ababa, the base of the Ethiopian airlines" he said.    

Hossain said the Ethiopian airline that operates to 10 destination of the US has the plan to conduct daily flight to Dhaka with its Boing Dreamliner 787 soon after initiating the operation of commercial schedule flights in Bangladesh.  

After a series of consultations in line with diplomatic efforts of the two countries the civil aviation authorities of Ethiopia and Bangladesh signed the air service agreement in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on December 6.

The deal was inked during the ICAO Air Services Negotiation Event 2023 (ICAN2023), the largest event related to aviation negotiations of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) on 3-7 December in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia,

Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) Chairman Air Vice Marshal Mafidur Rahman led a five-member delegation at the event.

Ethiopia's flag carrier Ethiopian Airlines has been operating freight flights through third country for 31 years from Bangladesh.

Noting that currently, the Ethiopian airline operates three weekly non-scheduled freighter flights offline to and from Dhaka, Shohag said the ASA will also allow commencing scheduled direct freighter flights to and from Bangladesh.

Ethiopian Airlines, with 147 aircraft, is Africa's largest airline in terms of carrying passengers, destinations, fleet size, and revenue while it is ranked as world's fourth-largest airline by the number of countries served.