Ethiopian Airlines have advised that they intend to start operating direct flights from Addis Ababa to Mombasa, the second largest city in Kenya. The service which will start in June 2009 is being inaugurated in order to satisfy the demands of Israeli and foreign businessmen.
Ethiopian Airlines will operate Boeing 737s on the flights to Mombasa from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital city, stopping off at Kiliminjaro airport in Tanzania, in all likelihood in preparation for the twice weekly flights. The return flights to Israel will take a similar route.
The airline advised that the decision to fly to Mombasa was made following many requests from businessmen from Israel and overseas; who until now were forced to find alternative and more expensive routes. The price of the new route will shortly be available from travel agents.
Mombasa with its major sea port and centre of the coastal tourism industry will receive its first direct flights from Israel, since the terror attack in 2002 which killed 15 and left many others injured including a number of Israelis. On the same day terrorists attempted to shoot down an Arkia Airlines Boeing 757 with a surface-to-air missile as it was about to take off from Moi International Airport, en route to Tel Aviv. At that time Arkia flew a weekly charter flight between Tel Aviv and Mombasa.
As a result of the attacks plus threats received from Al Qaeda, the Israeli General Security Service ordered Arkia and El Al to stop operating direct flights to Kenya. Until that time El Al had operated flights to Nairobi.
Since 2002, Israelis wanting to travel to Mombasa have had to travel via major European cities or from other destinations in Africa. Ethiopian Airlines operate four weekly flights between Addis Ababa and Tel Aviv.
