Ethiopian Airlines has embarked on a service upgrade for its Bangkok-Addis Ababa route by deploying the Boeing 787 Dreamliner on the city pair. The replacement of the ageing B767-300ER with the new-generation wide-body jet, starting on Aug 3, forms part of a strategy to tap growing traffic opportunities between Africa and Southeast Asia. The upgrade is expected to boost the 70-year-old airline's passenger volumes on the route and strengthen Bangkok as Ethiopian's Southeast Asian hub. The greater appeal of the B787 should enable Ethiopian to regain market leadership in the Thailand-Africa connection after losing momentum to arch rival Kenya Airways, which inaugurated Dreamliner flights from Nairobi to Bangkok in August 2014. Meaza Taye, Ethiopian's manager for Thailand and Southeast Asia, said that the airline will use Bangkok as a springboard to launch new services to several Southeast Asian countries. For starters, the carrier plans to extend the Addis Ababa-Bangkok service to Hanoi next summer, starting by the end of March, with three or four flights a week, Ms Taye said. Ethiopian's daily flight between Addis Ababa and Bangkok has already been extended to Kuala Lumpur with three flights a week and Manila with four flights a week. <br/>
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A Saratoga Springs man accused of hacking the United Airlines website to steal and then sell travel vouchers has pleaded guilty in a deal that could eventually get the charge against him dismissed. Ammon Cunningham, 28, pleaded guilty Monday to a pattern of unlawful activity, a second-degree felony, while additional second-degree felony charges of computer crimes, theft and communications fraud were dismissed. Cunningham's plea will be held in abeyance, which means a potential prison sentence will be stayed and the charge could be reduced to a class A misdemeanor in a year if he completes 80 hours of community service, pays restitution and commits no new crimes. According to charging documents filed in May, from about July 2012 to September 2012, Cunningham "unlawfully accessed the United Airlines website and obtained personal identification numbers codes for electronic travel certificates that had been assigned to United customers but had not yet been redeemed by those customers." After obtaining the travel vouchers, Cunningham would either use them for himself or sell them on Craigslist and KSL.com at deeply discounted rates, the charges state.<br/>