Ethiopian Airlines received Africa’s first Boeing 787 Dreamliner on Friday, making Ethiopia the only country aside from Japan to operate the innovative aircraft.

“As a continent this shows how much we are making progress as Africans… competing on the global stage and changing our image,” Ethiopian Airline CEO Tewolde Gebremariam told reporters at Addis Ababa’s Bole International Airport.

The plane arrived from Dulles airport in Washington, DC, home to the largest Ethiopian diaspora population globally.