Loosened bilateral enables Canadian flight growth for Ethiopian Airlines

Ethiopian Airlines has gained two extra weekly traffic rights to Canada, up from the present five. The reciprocal nature of air service agreements, which control market access, means that a Canadian airline could fly up to seven times weekly to Ethiopia if desired (not going to happen). Among other changes, Royal Jordanian can fly seven weekly from Amman, up from three weekly. The change follows the loosening of the strict Canada-UAE bilateral agreement earlier in 2023. This enabled Emirates to begin Dubai-Montreal, partner Air Canada Vancouver-Dubai, and Emirates and Etihad to increase Toronto flights. In November, Ethiopian's CCO, Lemma Yadecha Gudeta, said he is keen to increase Toronto flights to daily. The new bilateral agreement enables this. However, when writing Wednesday, this has not yet been implemented, per its booking engine. Toronto is presently served five times weekly (the maximum permitted under the old agreement) using the Airbus A350-900, but expect it to rise to daily soon. Like most of the airline's other North American services, Toronto flights leave Addis Ababa late at night and arrive back in the early morning. This is for one reason: to maximize two-way connectivity across Africa.<br/>Due to Addis Ababa's renowned very high elevation, which reduces aircraft performance with a decent payload, the Toronto service stops in Rome Fiumicino to refuel and change crew. It operated via Dublin until the end of October but switched back to Rome due to a better deal and more payload capability, improving commercial performance.<br/>