Ethiopian Airlines (
Amharic ?????? ??? ????; ??????? in short) is an
airline based in
Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia. It is the
national airline of Ethiopia, operating scheduled international passenger and freight services to over 50 destinations worldwide, as well as domestic services to 32 destinations and passenger and cargo charter flights. Its main hub is Addis Ababa's
Bole International Airport.
[2]Ethiopian Airlines is the fourth largest airline in Africa by passengers and destinations, .[1] Ethiopian Airlines serves over 50 destinations worldwide and over 35 destinations within Ethiopia.[3]
Ethiopian Airlines was founded on December 30, 1945, by Emperor Haile Selassie with assistance from TWA. It commenced operations on April 8, 1946, with a weekly service between Addis Ababa and Cairo with five Douglas DC-3 propeller-driven aircraft.[4]
The airline started long-haul services to Frankfurt in 1958 and inaugurated its first jet service in January 1963 from Addis Ababa to Nairobi. In 1965, it changed from a corporation to a share company and changed its name from Ethiopian Air Lines to Ethiopian Airlines. In the early 1960s it provided some initial aviation support to the Ethiopia-United States Mapping Mission in its operation to provide topographic maps of Ethiopia.[5] It is wholly owned by the government of Ethiopia and has 4,700 employees (at March 2007)[2].
