Ethiopian Airlines will be looking at daily and even double-daily services in the near future, Mengistu Adelahu, Ethiopian Airlines’ Manager for Traffic and Sales for Durban, announced at an interactive session between Ethiopian airlines and the travel and tourism trade in Durban this week.

Adelahu said currently Ethiopian Airlines was operating a low-capacity B738 but was planning to introduce a Dreamliner on the route in the near future. “Everybody has a dream to fly the Dreamliner,” he said.

Ethiopian Airlines’ network connects to the Gulf, the Far East and India, from where the airline offers more than 21 weekly flights, as well as the US and Europe.

Durban has a lot to offer international visitors, according to Adelahu, who explained that currently most of the visitors to KwaZulu Natal are local and regional visitors. “We want the number of international visitors to grow,” he said, adding that Ethiopian Tourism would liaise with Durban Tourism to make this happen. ‘Ethiopian Holidays’ department of the airline has started actively packaging Durban for Ethiopian travellers already.

Although connections to most parts of the world are excellent with very short connecting times, according to Adelahu, he says if a traveller has long layover times, the airline will automatically provide stopover packages as well as visas.

Perry Moodley, Project Manager for Durban Tourism, says Durban has been working closely with a few international airlines to put Durban on the map. Besides Ethiopian Airlines, Moodley revealed that Fastjet would launch a Durban-Harare flight and Norwegian Airlines would launch Durban-Gatwick. “More airlines are still to be announced, but we can’t speak about that yet,” he said.

According to Adelahu, Ethiopian Airlines will also expand its operations in the rest of South Africa and will launch a direct Cape Town route operating a Boeing 787, without making a stop in Johannesburg.