Ethiopian Airlines said it recorded a 17 percent increase in operating revenue in the year to the end of June and an increase in passenger numbers by 14 percent.

The rise in passenger numbers helped to counterbalance the effect of higher fuel costs, which stood at about 25 percent, according to the company which spoke to Reuters.

The company said it expects to release its full set of financial results in the next two weeks.

The news comes in the wake of a difficult year in which one of the carrier’s planes crashed shortly after take-off from Bole airport in Addis Ababa to Nairobi. The crash killed all 157 people on board.

Africa’s biggest airline on Thursday also announced that it had finalised all preparations to launch flights three times a week to Houston in Texas, USA, from December 16, 2019.

Houston is the fourth most populous city in the United States with a diverse ethnic and religious demography.

This was preceded by another announcement that it had plans to launch a new flight route to the capital city of Jordan, Amman, from October.

The airline is currently implementing a 15-year strategic plan called Vision 2025 that has resulted in it becoming the leading aviation group in Africa.