Ethiopian Goes Back to Madrid after 50 Years

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The Ethiopian Airlines on Monday resumed a thrice-weekly flight to Madrid it interrupted in the 1970s.

Ethiopian Airlines used to fly to Spain in the 1960s. After flying there for seven years it interrupted the flight due to low traffic. “We feel like going back home,” Tewolde Gebremariam, Ethiopian CEO, said at the inaugural ceremony held at the Addis Ababa Bole International Airport VIP terminal on Monday.
Madrid is Ethiopian’s ninth destination in Europe. It is Ethiopian’s 83 international destinations in five continents.

Tewolde said Madrid is a political seat but it also has many tourist attractions. Madrid is a major tourist traffic origin. “Madrid is a beautiful city,” Tewolde said. According to him, the national flag carrier will bring tourists to Ethiopia and the rest of Africa. “We will also take our African brothers and sisters from different African countries with seamless connections to Spain.” Ethiopian has 49 destinations in Africa. It also reaches the whole of Europe with its Star Alliance membership.

Tewolde said Ethiopian has deployed its state of the art jetliner, B787-8 Dreamliner aircraft. Ethiopian will fly to Madrid via Rome thrice weekly. Tewolde said the airline will increase the flight frequency to daily. Tewolde talked about the popular Spanish soccer tournament. Tewolde who has never been to Madrid but visited Barcelona a couple of times is a good fan of FC Barcelona.

Spanish ambassador to Ethiopia Fernandez Palacios said that Ethiopian flights to Madrid will strengthen the economic and political ties between the two countries. Ambassador Palacios asked Ethiopian CEO Tewolde two things: to support Atlético Mardrid (the ambassador’s favorite team) and name one of the Ethiopian Dreamliners aircraft after the renowned Spanish historian, Pedro Paiz. Pedro Paiz authored a book about Ethiopia in 1622. “This would help us promote Ethiopia in Spain,” Fernandez told Tewolde.

On the same day Ethiopian launched a four-weekly flight to Bale Goba. Bale is known for the Sof Omar cave and the Bale Mountains National Park. With 15.1 km length, Sof Omar is the longest cave in Ethiopia and the longest system of caves in Africa.

Bale is Ethiopian’s 19th domestic destination. The national flag carrier will also resume the flight it interrupted due the construction of a new airport at Kombolcha on September 10. Both domestic destinations will be served by Bombardier Q400 airliner.

Ethiopian regional service currently operates scheduled flight services to 18 domestic stations using the new Bombardier Q400 aircraft and B737. (Reporter)

Tewolde said that the Ethiopian government has shown a firm commitment to develop the Ethiopian tourism sector. “The government has established the Ethiopian Tourism Organization which is run under the chairmanship of the airline. It will not take us long to transform the tourism sector,” he told the gathering.