Ethiopian Airlines adds Urumqi cargo route

Ethiopian Airlines, the largest carrier in Africa, recently launched new cargo flights between Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa and Urumqi in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. The route has become the first direct cargo route between Xinjiang and Africa to meet the growing demand of Sino-African trade.

The new cargo route, operated twice weekly by Boeing 777 Freighter, is expected to help strengthen Ethiopian Airlines' footprint in western China and enable more efficient freight transportation and broader market access for exporters and importers, the carrier said.

The new route has helped build a high-speed transportation channel for Xinjiang's high-quality fruits and vegetables, cold-water fish such as salmon, and other distinctive agricultural products to arrive in Africa and other global markets.