Date: Friday, 19 October 2018
Ethiopian Airlines is adding a service from Asmara, Eritrea, to Oslo. The airline already flies to Oslo.
The existing route:
Ethiopian Airlines currently flies from Addis Abeba to Oslo via Stockholm Arlanda. This route flies four times per week, but it will increase to six with the extension to Asmara.
The new route:
The new route is similar to the existing route, which connects Addis Abeba to Arlanda and continues to Oslo Gardermoen. The new route goes from Addis Abeba, Ethiopia then onwards to Asmara, Eritrea, Oslo, Norway, and, lastly Stockholm, Sweden (ADD-ASM-OSL-ARN). The new route will be the first direct link from Eritrea to Europe.
Why are they starting the route?:
This is not the only new route international connection to Oslo. Hainan Airlines recently announced a connection to Oslo.
This suggests that Norway is a profitable destination since both passenger and cargo operations are successful.
Seafood is exported a lot from Norway both on freighter and commercial planes. Many Scandinavians travel to both new destinations, esepcially warm ones.