With the Italian conquest of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa was incorporated into the imperial network, being served four times a week with the Savoia Marchetti, SM-73 airplanes.

[3] On 1 February 1946 at 11:50 a huge crowd gathered at Lideta to watch the arrival together of six DC-3s – the first five aircraft for the brand new Ethiopian Airlines, and a sixth to transport the USAAF ferry pilots back to Cairo.

There were joyrides over Addis Ababa on March 3 and the first scheduled international passenger service took off for Cairo at 7am on 8 April, refuelling at Asmara 10-10:30, arriving Almaza at 4:30pm.

[4] Formerly the main air hub (created by the Italians in 1936 with the name Ivo Oliveti aeroporto) for the Addis Ababa area, in 1960, Ethiopian Airlines realised the runway at Lideta was too short for its new jet aircraft, the Boeing 720.

Main colonial governors: Agenore Frangipani; Guglielmo Nasi; Enrico Cerulli; Pietro Gazzera; Luigi Frusci; Alessandro Pirzio Biroli