Fly to Ethiopia from Oct 27

The first African flight to take off from the Kempegowda International Airport will be an Ethiopian Airlines service. The airlines on Wednesday officially announced that passenger flights to Bengaluru will commence on October 27.

In a tweet to a global audience, the airlines also put in a word about Bengaluru: "The capital of the Indian state of Karnataka, Bengaluru is dubbed the 'Silicon Valley of India' and serves as the center of technology and innovation."

Operating Boeing 737-800 flights, the service will connect Bengaluru with the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, directly. This would be a first for the city, and follows Ethiopia's relaxation of its visa rules last year. In 2018, Addis Ababa had replaced Dubai as the primary transit hub for long-haul flights to multiple destinations in Africa.

The new four weekly flights to Bengaluru will be in addition to the airlines' twice daily flights each to Mumbai and New Delhi. The flights will also complement its existing dedicated freighter flights to and from Bengaluru.