Ethiopian Airlines will expand its bellyhold capacity to China as it announced more flights following the easing of Covid-19 restrictions.

The major African carrier said the frequency of its flights to Chinese cities would increase as of February 6, 2023, ultimately returning to the pre-COVID-19 levels on March 1.

As of February 6, Ethiopian Airlines said it would operate daily flights to Guangzhou while increasing its weekly flights to Beijing and Shanghai to four each and maintaining the trice weekly operation to Chengdu.

Back to pre-Covid 19 level

Starting from March 1, 2023, the flights will surge back to the pre-COVID-19 levels with daily flights to Beijing and Shanghai as well as ten and four weekly flights to Guangzhou and Chengdu, respectively, it added.

Ethiopian Airlines will also operate a total of 28 weekly passenger flights to China when the services are fully restored.

"We are glad that we are ramping up the frequencies of our flights to Chinese cities thanks to the easing of flight restrictions by the Government of China," said Mesfin Tasew, Ethiopian Group CEO, noting that China is one of the largest markets for Ethiopian Airlines outside Africa.

"The increase in flight frequencies will help revive the trade, investment, cultural and bilateral cooperation between Africa and China in the post-Covid era. Thanks to our large network across Africa, the increase in the number of flights to Chinese cities will bring Africa and China closer. We are keen to further expand our service to China going forward," Tasew added.

In addition to its passenger flights to Guangzhou, Shanghai, Beijing and Chengdu, Ethiopian is also operating freighter flights to Guangzhou, Shanghai, Zhengzhou, Changsha and Wuhan.