Ethiopian Airlines will end Los Angeles service this summer
and replace it with flights to Houston.
The carrier has served Los Angeles with one-stop service
from Addis Ababa since 2015. Just last month, Ethiopian changed the stopover
from Dublin to its West African base in Lome, Togo.
For now, Ethiopian's Los Angeles-Lome flight is the only
nonstop from the U.S. West Coast to Africa.
The carrier's Houston flight will also stop in West Africa
before continuing to Addis Ababa. Ethiopian hasn't announced a start date for
the route and didn't confirm whether it will use Lome as the stopover location.
The carrier also uses the Ivory Coast capital of Abidjan as a stopover on some
routes.
Ethiopian will operate the route three times per week on a
Boeing 787 Dreamliner. It will become the lone nonstop service between Houston
and Africa.
Ethiopian's shift from Los Angeles to Houston is part of a
broader adjustment to its U.S. network this coming summer. The carrier will
shift three of its seven weekly Newark flights to New York JFK. The four Newark
flights will stop in Lome before continuing to Addis Ababa while the three JFK
flights will have a stopover in Abidjan.
Ethiopian also will increase frequency on its Chicago route three
to five times weekly and increase service between Addis Ababa and Washington
Dulles from daily to 10 times weekly.
"Our new route structure with additional frequencies to
multiple gateways and the opening of the new route to Houston are aimed at
responding to the market demand and availing the best possible connectivity to
over 60 African destinations," said Ethiopian CEO Tewolde GebreMariam.