Ethiopian Airline planning direct flights from Lagos to New York

Now, Nigerians would be able to travel directly to the United States. Ethiopian Airline recently announced it is planning to launch direct flights to New York from Lagos via Lome, Togo. The duration of the flight would be of 12 hours. The airline made the announcement to mark its 70th anniversary celebrations. The new service is likely to commence soon.

Solomon Begashaw, General Manager of Ethiopian Airline – Nigeria, said, “The air travel time between New York and Lagos usually takes about 20 hours. However, the airline has now decided to launch a 12-hour direct flight to New York from Lagos, which will be operated thrice weekly. This will undoubtedly be the shortest time ever so far in the history of Nigeria for any direct flights services to the United States.”

Begashaw said that Ethiopian Airline is presently a member of Star Alliance, and would be working aggressively with other member airlines to make this plan successful. Until now at least four Nigerian cities have been connected to the world with flight services. These include Lagos, Abuja, Enugu and Kano. It may be noted that Ethiopian Airline conducted all-women flights services to countries such as Saudi Arabia, and has in fact allocated two of its aircrafts for the purpose.

Media reports said that Ethiopian Airline is currently in the process of reviewing its vision 2025 and has plans to generate $10 billion by operating flights to 26 domestic and 120 international destinations.

Meanwhile, Ethiopian Airline recently launched flights to New York from Enugu. The thrice weekly service started operating from June 23, 2016. The airline also announced that it would be launching flights to Newark Liberty from Addis Ababa in July this year. The thrice-weekly service would start operating from July 3, 2016 via Lomé, Togo, and thus connecting Enugu to New York as well. Moreover, connections would also be available from to/from other African cities, including Yaoundé,, Ouagadougou, Niamey, N’Djamena, Libreville, Lagos, Kinshasa, Douala, Dakar, Conakry, Brazzaville, Bissau, Bamako, Abidjan among others.