Ethiopian Airlines long-haul review
Africa’s global airline. Plus: Addis Airport notes. And revealed: Possibly the worst Priority Pass lounge in the world
I took two flights on Ethiopian Airlines when going to Addis Ababa recently with my son for The Great Ethiopian Run. The first was from Atlanta to Addis, and the second was Addis to Frankfurt. Both were in Economy. Here are some thoughts on the airline based on those experiences. Plus some comments on the Addis airport.
Ethiopian = Africa’s global airline
Ethiopian Airlines — which is wholly owned by the Ethiopian government — is the largest in Africa. It is also Africa’s oldest continuously operating airline, having started operations in 1945. Those facts reflect, in part, Ethiopia’s history as the one African country that was never fully colonized and progressed early on from a tribal system to becoming a larger, integrated, independent nation. Check out my post on The Great Ethiopian Run if you want to learn more about the country’s modern history.
Ethiopian is currently the only African airline with a truly global reach, with flights to North and South America, Europe, and Asia. Not to mention to numerous places in Africa itself. It is a member of Star Alliance. Its nearest competitor is South African Airlines — also a Star Alliance member — but that carrier’s network is somewhat diminished at present. And South Africa is less well-placed geographically to be a hub for connecting traffic.
Ethiopian Airlines presently flies to six cities in North America: Atlanta, Chicago, Newark, New York JFK, Toronto, and Washington Dulles. The Newark flight makes a stop in Lomé, the capital of the West African nation of Togo where the airline has a secondary hub. Before the pandemic, Ethiopian flew from some other U.S. cities, including Los Angeles — that route was via Dublin.
Ethiopian Airlines was tragically in the news in 2019 — through no fault of its own — when a newly acquired Boeing 737 MAX crashed soon after take off from Addis Ababa killing all on board. That accident — coming soon after a similar one in Indonesia — led to the worldwide grounding of the entire MAX fleet. But there has been no recent accident to which blame has attached to the airline.
A solid product
Some airline reviews focus on micro detail. Mine, if you have read them before, tend to be shorter and bigger picture. So my overall take is that Ethiopian is a fine airline for economy class for long-haul travel. I would not place it in the exceptional, bucket-list category along with, say, the likes of Japan Airlines or Qatar. But I would readily fly Ethiopian again if its route network made it a logical choice to take me to where I was going.
I stress this because if you search for reviews of Ethiopian, you can find some pretty damning ones prominently in the results. “Worst flight ever,” etc. No doubt the authors of those reviews had disappointing experiences. But I sometimes suspect the people most prone to harsh criticism of airlines are those who travel the least, perhaps having unreasonable expectations. Either way, on both my Ethiopian flights, I found the flight attendants highly professional and hard working. The food was okay. They were not stingy with wine and beer. They provide amenity kits in economy. The aircraft interior on the first flight — a B787 — was perhaps a bit on the shabby side, but a B787 is always a fine aircraft on which to fly. The aircraft on the second flight — an A330 — seemed fresher.
My assessment is as someone who has travelled to almost 100 countries, flying on things as diverse as the British Airways Concorde and an ancient Soviet aircraft used by Air Koryo, the North Korean national carrier. So when I rate Ethiopian as “decent,” I have some relative perspective.
Many — perhaps most — people flying on Ethiopian from the U.S. and Europe transit at Addis. If that is what you are planning on doing, you should try to spend a day or two in the city, or even just a few hours. One of the plus points of hubs in distant places is that they can offer opportunities for brief travel experiences in places you may never otherwise get to see. The airport is very close to the city center. Check out my post on my Ethiopia visit for more on visiting the city. And keep in mind that Ethiopian Airlines itself has stopover programs, including for people with same-day connections.
Close to trouble?
Watching the moving map as you approach Addis reminds you that Ethiopia is close to some of the world’s hotspots. Yemen and Somalia — among others — are close by. As I noted in my other post, Ethiopia has had its share of conflict of various types. But in recent years, they have mostly been internal. Ethiopia is a largely Christian country. While it is close geographically to the turmoil in the Middle East, it is removed religiously and politically. I’m used to skirting around trouble spots. But if you aren’t, I wouldn’t let the moving map spook you out.
The Addis airport experience
The Addis airport itself is quite efficient, at least it was on the days we were there. Arriving, immigration and customs lines were minimal. Check-in and security lines on departure were also short. But the overall airport experience is nothing special. This is not one of those places where you want to plan for some extra time to enjoy all the airport has to offer as you might in, for example, Singapore or Doha.
The world’s worst Priority Pass lounge?
Reinforcing the case not to linger unnecessarily in the airport, the Priority Pass lounge at Addis is literally the worst airport lounge I have ever been to. By far. So much so that I downgraded myself to a non-lounge experience. It’s called the Plaza Premium lounge, and is part of an eponymous network that has significantly better spaces in other airports. As for their Addis lounge, stay away unless they upgrade the experience. Bad food, no alcohol (even for purchase), cramped, crowded, no windows to the outside world — there is literally no reason to go there. It is utterly without merit.
The promotional photos on the Priority Pass app are completely misleading, showing a well-stocked, inviting bar and what looks like restaurant seating with linen table clothes. However, that bar — run by the lounge operator — is not part of the lounge itself, but is just outside and open to anyone. It is also rather pricey. And I have no idea where the fancy table photos came from.
If you have an unlimited Priority Pass membership, you might want to look in at the Plaza Premium just to see how bad a lounge could be. But it is certainly not worth paying for or using up one of a limited number of prepaid lounge visits.
None of that reflects badly on Ethiopian Airlines itself, of course. The airline does have its own lounge for its Business Class passengers, but I was not able to visit that, unfortunately.
Non-revving on Ethiopian Airlines
I travelled standby on Ethiopian as a “non-rev” passenger using travel benefits from my wife’s work for a U.S. airline. “Non-rev” stands for “non-revenue.” There is actually some revenue to an airline when staff travelers from other airlines fly on them, but it is quite minimal.
Some airlines are easier to non-rev on than others. I would place Ethiopian in the middle of the pack. One challenge is that it is not easy to get reliable load information to help you judge your chances of getting on and predict the likelihood of getting a decent seat. The best way of getting this information generally is through the crowd-sourced Staff Traveler load-sharing app, but not many Ethiopian Airlines staff seem to take part in this. We did get some responses to our load requests when planning our journey to Addis, but they were sporadic and took a long time.
Ethiopian does not allow non-revs to check in online. We went to the check-in counters at Atlanta three hours before departure. They couldn’t confirm us when we got there, but rather than give us a security pass so that we could standby airside, they kept us waiting landside until close to departure. Personally, I much prefer standing by at the gate rather than at check-in, because that way one can use a lounge or other airport facilities while waiting. Some airlines do that, others don’t. Ethiopian appears not to. When we were eventually accepted on the flight, we got two non-adjacent middle seats. Fortunately, we were able to change that at the gate to an aisle and middle on a row of three. Initially, the gate agents couldn’t improve our original seat assignments, but I’ve learned that a bit of polite persistence can pay off.
Departing from Addis, there is a special check-in desk for staff travelers. That is something you never see in the USA and rarely in Europe. But it is quite common in some other parts of the world. This time, they confirmed us right away on our flight to Frankfurt and gave us two aisles on a center row of three. Fortunately, the middle remained empty. ✈️
Related post: The Great Ethiopian Run: 2023 review and trip report