Ethiopian Airlines received Africa’s first Airbus A350-1000, registered ET-BAW, on November 5. The second example (registered ET-BAX) arrived in Addis Abeba on December 7.
The duo travels to a variety of destinations. The company expects more A350-1000 flights to Washington Dulles than anyplace else in its network, however this may alter due to unexpected equipment changes.
Ethiopia’s A350-1000s: A Summary
The Star Alliance member has ordered four types, with the last two scheduled for delivery by March 2025.
The four A350-1000s will feature 395 seats, including 46 in business class and 349 in economy. It is Ethiopia’s second-largest capacity aircraft, following the 777-300ER (399 passengers).
Ethiopian’s widebodies have a greater proportion of business seats (12%), compared to the A350-900 (9%), 777-300ER (9%), 787-8 (9%), 787-9 (10%), and 777-200LR (11%).
Given the nature of Ethiopia’s demand and in comparison to numerous other A350-1000 operators, 12% is insufficient. However, it is comparable to the majority of its widebody fleet.
Ethiopian to North America.
In 1998, the carrier began flying to Dulles using the 767-300ER aircraft. The DC region has the largest Ethiopian diaspora of any metro area in the United States, with perhaps 75,000 or more people, as well as the second-highest number of African immigrants. It is an important aim for the airline.
According to OAG records, Dulles and Newark were both served until 2005, but only Dulles was part of the network until 2012, when its first Canadian route began. Ethiopian’s North American passenger network development proceeded as follows:
- Flights between Washington Dulles and Newark began in 1998 and stopped in 2005.
- 2012: Toronto.
- Flights from Los Angeles terminated in 2019.
- 2016: Newark returned.
- 2018: Chicago-O’Hare
- 2019: New York JFK and Houston (Houston flights end in 2020).
- 2023: Atlanta
Washington Dulles is the leading market.
Ethiopian plans to fly passengers to six North American destinations with up to seven daily departures by 2025. Unsurprisingly, Dulles is by far the largest and most significant market, as well as the only airport in the United States and Canada with more than one daily flight. It is served eleven times a week in two ways.
- Daily A350-1000/A350-900 flights from Addis Ababa to Dulles (via Rome outbound and non-stop return).
- Four weekly flights between Addis Abeba, Lomé, and Dulles. 787-8
What’s Dulles’ schedule?
Focusing on Addis Abeba-Dulles rather than its one-stop service via Lomé, the timetable is as follows, with all timings local:
- Addis Abeba-Rome Fiumicino: ET500, 22:50-03:25+1 (6 hour 35 minute block time)
- Rome Fiumicino-Dulles: ET500, 04:25-08:00 (9 hours 35 minutes)
- Dulles-Addis Ababa: ET501, 10:00-07:15+1 (13 hours and 15 minutes)
Given Addis Abeba’s high elevation, which lowers take-off performance, the Rome stop is for refueling, changing crews, and ensuring a large payload. Rome is significantly shorter than Dublin, where it formerly stopped, hence the freight from Addis Abeba is larger. There are no fifth-freedom rights.
Flights depart Ethiopia at 22:50 and return at 07:15, maximizing two-way connection across Africa. The accompanying image from a week in mid-January indicates that the 22:50 departure is served by the greatest number of aircraft from across Africa. Meanwhile, the 07:15 arrival allows customers to connect with the most Africa-wide departures.
Where do Dulles travelers go?
According to US Department of Transportation T-100 data, Ethiopian’s Addis Ababa-Dulles route (not the Lomé service) handled 204,000 roundtrip passengers in the year to September 2024. With 239,000 seats for sale, it filled approximately 85% of them, with May to August exceeding 90%.
Booking data indicates that approximately:
- 81,000 passengers connected to another Ethiopian flight in Addis Abeba, with Dulles-Nairobi being the top origin and destination.
- Approximately 65,000 were point-to-point.
- 32,000 passengers transferred to a different flight from Dulles to Addis Abeba (the original flight was from Denver to Addis Abeba).
- 26,000 passengers were shifted to different flights in Denver and Addis Abeba, with the Columbus-Mogadishu route being the most popular.