Maiden flight to Europe

On March 5th the first wide body aircraft MD11 of Ethiopian Airlines operates its inaugural flight to Europe, destination Liege Airport. The aircraft departed in the morning from Addis-Ababa and, after its tech-stop in Cairo, arrived at Liege Airport in the early evening.
As already announced, Ethiopian Airlines has relocated its cargo activities to Liege Airport since June 2008.
The national airline of Ethiopia operates 6 to 10 flights weekly, essentially at daytime, and is mainly carrying flowers.
Ethiopian Airlines was operating through a wet lease of aircrafts from another Airline, SOUTHERN AIR. In order to match the continuous demand for uplift northbound and also to stay in line with its growth, Ethiopian Airlines acquired 2 wide body aircrafts MD11, with a payload of approx. 85 tonnes, especially
converted to freighter-configuration.
These flights will be handled by AviaPartner Liege on the ramp, and by AviaPartner Cargo Liege for what the warehouse is concerned.
Liege Airport is delighted to welcome this new aircraft of the Ethiopian carrier and is proud of the confidence
granted by the airline.
This reconfirms as well as re-strengthens Liege Airport’s specialization in the area of perishable cargo. These specific commodities represent 20% of the total cargo traffic at Liege Airport.

Source: Transportweekly