Ethiopian Airlines launches Madagascar route

 

National carrier Ethiopian Airlines has launched a Madagascar route.

The airline made an inaugural flight to the Antananarivo Ivato International Airport on Tuesday afternoon with President Hery Rajaonarimampianina and his wife among those on board.

The President and the First Lady and several governmental officials were returning home from China.

The new route will see Ethiopian Airlines fly to Madagascar from Addis Ababa three times a week, according to the Malagasy Presidential Press Service.

Serving the route will be Boeing 737-800, raising the southern African nation’s destinations around the world to 86.

The Malagasy authorities welcomed the route launch, saying it will help the country enhance its goal of attracting an estimated one million international visitors annually by 2020.

Previously, people in the southern African nation relied mostly the South African Airlines, Air Mauritius, Kenya Airlines and the Emirates via Mauritius, to fly to Asia.

President Hery Rajaonarimampianina and his delegation were in China since last Thursday on a state visit.

source ebc