Chennai will become the fourth passenger destination in India to be served by the carrier.
Ethiopian Airlines is adding a new destination in India to its passenger network in July and ramping up service on two existing routes to the South Asian country.
Chennai, on the Bay of Bengal and the capital of the state of Tamil Nadu, will become the fourth city in India to be served by the Star Alliance member, alongside Bengaluru (BLR), Delhi (DEL) and Mumbai (BOM).
Scheduled flights from Addis Ababa (ADD) to Chennai (MAA) will begin on July 2, operating three times per week. Service from ADD will be on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays using Boeing 737-8 aircraft.
Chennai is already served weekly by Ethiopian Cargo, but the city has remained absent from the carrier’s passenger network until now.
Ethiopian Airlines Group CEO Mesfin Tasew said: “We have been connecting Asia and Africa for 55 years now facilitating trade between the two continents.
“The addition of Chennai as a fourth passenger destination in India is a testimony of our resilience and unwavering commitment to serve our customers in India and the continent at large.”
Ethiopian started its service to India with a debut flight to Delhi in 1966 and added Mumbai five years later. As well as opening the route to Chennai, the carrier plans to increase the frequency of Addis Ababa-Mumbai to double-daily and Addis Ababa-Delhi to 10X-weekly. Bengaluru will continue to be served three times per week.
By late-July, data provided by OAG Schedules Analyser shows that Ethiopian will be offering 30 passenger flights per week from Addis Ababa to destinations in India, providing 16,086 two-way seats. This compares with 26 weekly flights and 15,124 weekly seats during peak summer in 2019.
Addis Ababa will become only the second point in the continent of Africa to be served nonstop from Chennai. The only other route is provided by Air Austral, which offers flights to La Réunion Roland Garros (RUN) on the island of Reunion.