Starting from 30 March, daily flights will connect the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa and Frankfurt in German as a result of codeshare flights between Lufthansa German Airlines and Ethiopian Airlines. The news was announced by the latter air company’s website.

“The new code share agreement marks a significant landmark as we are now in the position to offer our customers daily connections from Addis Ababa to Lufthansa’s hub in Frankfurt with convenient onward flights,” noted Mr. Tewolde G.Mariam, Chief Operating Officer of Ethiopian.

With this agreement, the two carriers jointly provide daily frequency on the Addis Ababa-Frankfurt route. Ethiopian presently provides three weekly services from its home base Addis Ababa to Frankfurt on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, while the in-bound services to Addis Ababa are on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Lufthansa currently flies to Frankfurt four times weekly (Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays). The cooperation will provide to customers in terms of more choices of services.

Mr. Girma Wake, CEO of Ethiopian Airlines, and Mr. Wolfgang Mayrhuber, Chairman and CEO, Lufthansa German Airlines signed the main agreement on June 2nd, 2007 in Vancouver, Canada and various operational agreements have been signed subsequently to facilitate the implementation of the codshare agreement.

“The new code share agreement will further strengthen Ethiopian’s position in Germany and other European markets by creating additional possibilities to access traffic through the extensive network of Lufthansa”, said Mr. Wake, CEO of Ethiopian Airlines. He added that the agreement will pave the way for Ethiopian to further strengthen its co-operation with Lufthansa and other Star Alliance member airlines.

Since last October 28th, Ethiopian’s ShebaMiles members have been able to earn and/or use their award miles on the international route network of Lufthansa. Likewise Lufthansa’s ‘Miles & More Members have started utilizing Ethiopian’s services to accrue and redeem award miles on all its international and domestic scheduled flights.

Ethiopian has been partnering with LSG Lufthansa Service, world’s biggest airline caterer and provider of integrated in-flight solutions which assist Ethiopian in managing and upgrading its catering division.