summary
- Ethiopian Airlines plans to add Lisbon, Dublin, Amsterdam, another city in northern England (joining Manchester) and Warsaw on a passenger basis, some of which it previously served.
- Glasgow or Edinburgh seem inevitable. In the year to September 2023, there were a total of 116,000 sub-Saharan round-trip passengers.
- The airline has traffic rights for up to 28 flights a week in the UK, of which only 15 are currently in use.
Ethiopian Airlines plans to launch passenger flights to 19 European airports this year. Kirium data. Copenhagen appeared in May, London Gatwick Airport in November (which I also attended), and Madrid in December. But where does it come from? I met Rema Jadecha Gudeta, the airline’s chief commercial officer, at Gatwick Airport.
Plans for the future of Europe
Airline officials are typically concerned about disclosing much, if any, of their future plans for competitive reasons. It’s not that bad. Of course, details such as the time period were not revealed, but it was still insightful.
- lisbon: “Transaction completed” It will be eligible for the slot there. We previously reported that several airlines were applying for slots in the Portuguese capital next summer, but the airport is notorious for its lack of slots.
- dublin: “The case that ended” In March 2020, Ethiopian Airlines ceased flying to the Irish capital on a single-passenger basis through Brussels (i.e., it did not continue to fly to North America).
- Amsterdam: is also scheduled, but slots have been fixed, inevitably helped by Schiphol Airport reversing plans to reduce and restrict flights next summer due to noise.Ethiopian Airlines last flew to the city in 2007, when it operated via Frankfurt.
- northern england: Complementing Manchester in the north (5 flights per week via Geneva) and London Heathrow and Gatwick in the south.This is explained in more detail below
- warsaw: Due to Star Alliance reasons
Photo: Wirestock Creators | Shutterstock
Another airport in the north of England
Gudeta, who was appointed CCO in 2022, said: “We have so many flights available each week under existing bilateral agreements that we are able to expand in the UK.” [air service agreement or ASA]. ” You can see him in the photo below.
The ASA still underpins many areas of the world’s aviation sector, limiting the amount airlines can fly to other countries. Ethiopian Airlines can operate up to 28 flights a week to the UK, with a total of 15 flights currently available, including one daily to Heathrow, five weekly flights to Manchester and three weekly flights to Gatwick.
In this context, ‘North of England’ can realistically only mean Glasgow or Edinburgh. Analysis of booking data for the 12 months to September 2023 found that the two Scottish cities, which are about 75 minutes apart, had around 116,000 passengers flying to and from sub-Saharan Africa. This equates to approximately 317 passengers per day, excluding seasons.
In total, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Nairobi and Lagos (Ethiopia’s biggest transfer market from Heathrow and Manchester) were among the pair’s biggest markets. Like many other European routes, Glasgow or Edinburgh will inevitably route through mainland Europe until traffic increases enough to require the tags to be removed.
Where else in Europe would you like to be served by a Star Alliance airline? Let us know in the comments.
Source: Interview with James Pearson, Cirium, booking data
