Originally published on businesstraveller.com 07/08/2012   RSS

Ethiopian Airlines will take delivery of its first Boeing Dreamliner aircraft next week, with an inaugural passenger flight between Washington Dulles and Addis Ababa taking place on Thursday August 16.

In a release the African carrier said there were still “a few seats” available for the inaugural service. Ethiopian said it would then commence regular scheduled B787 flights on the route from this autumn.

The carrier placed its Dreamliner order back in 2005, and will be the first African airline to take delivery of the Boeing aircraft.

Ethiopian Airlines has a total of ten B787s on order, configured with 246 economy and 24 Cloud Nine business class seats.

The airline joined Star Alliance in December last year, and serves European cities including Brussels, Frankfurt, London, Paris, Rome and Stockholm.

For more information visit flyethiopian.com, and for our comprehensive guide to the Dreamliner, with details and images of current and forthcoming B787 operators, click here.

Report by Mark Caswell