Direct flights from Dublin to Addis will change our approach to Africa

Open The last services I can think of that genuinely transformed the way Irish people travel were with Emirates and Etihad to Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

Well, here's another. From June 15 of this year, Ethiopian Airlines (ethiopianairlines.com) will fly direct from Dublin to Addis Ababa. The route comes courtesy of a two-hour stopover on Ethiopian's Addis to LA service (which brings the added benefit of a new direct flight to LA), with three return flights per week out of Dublin Airport on a Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
The potential of the new route is huge. African exhibitors may have been huddled together in a tiny stall at the back of last week's Holiday World Show, but between them they represented Ethiopia, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi. Ethiopia has the largest number of African destinations of any airline, including Johannesburg, Lagos, Nairobi and Zanzibar, so the connection possibilities are exciting all sorts of intrepid Irish visitors… not to mention business and development travellers.
"When I thought of Ethiopia, I used to think of a Trócaire box," as one attendee at Holiday World told me. "This gives it a whole other profile."
The forthcoming route brings to 15 the new routes available out of Dublin this year, with news of the latest - a summer service with French airline Europe Airport to Halifax, Nova Scotia - coming just this week.

Splash

Lalibela, Ethiopia
If you can't wait for direct flights to Ethiopia, Sunway (sunway.ie) has an Ethiopia Discovery Tour departing on February 28 and June 13 from €1,749pp. The itinerary is an adventurous one, with an arrival in Addis followed by a boat safari on Lake Chamo, tribal encounters, archaeological site visits and more over 12 days. Meanwhile, UK adventure travel operator Explore (explore.co.uk) has several Ethiopian itineraries on its website, including a 12-day guided trip from Addis Ababa to Djibouti from £1,975/€2,640pp, excluding flights.

Bargain

Surfing in Morocco

Africa is a huge and diverse continent, but not all visits require long-haul flights. Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt's Sharm El Sheikh (above) are all winter sun brochure regulars, and there are lots of direct charters from Ireland. Great beaches, winter temperatures of 17-19 degrees and exotic souks all make the 3-5 hour flights worthwhile. Going to press, Falcon (falconholidays.ie) had flights plus seven nights' all-inclusive in Sharm from €587pp, departing February 27. Cassidy Travel (cassidytravel.ie) has February packages to Morocco from €196pp.

Source: independent.ie