Ethiopian Airlines’ Vast Intra-African Network Analyzed
Ethiopian is Africa’s biggest airline. Here’s what a full day of its intra-African operations looks like.
As of January 27th, Ethiopian Airlines has up to 68 internationalpassenger flights departing from its Addis Ababa (ADD) hub across Africa on particular days this summer, although the average is 64 daily. Never has it had as many as 68, according to OAG data. Its record-breaking number has been helped by the Star Alliance member boosting flights on multiple routes and de-linking particular African cities. To understand its operation, here is its full-day international intra-Africa schedule based on randomly selected July 21st, 2023.
July 21st: midnight to 07:59
The best way of thinking about these four flights is that they are effectively, if not actually, the last of the departures across Africa from the day before. They fit into that departure bank. They are all relatively close to Addis and arrive back in ADD at 04:45-07:30, mainly enabling passengers to connect elsewhere in Africa and to the Middle East and China.
- 00:10: ET827, Dar es Salaam; 737-800
- 01:00: ET366, Djibouti; 737-700
- 01:00: ET316, Asmara; 737-700
- 01:10: ET343, Khartoum; 737-800
Click here for Addis Ababa-Khartoum flights.
July 21st: busiest period, part one
Fed by flights from a
To make it more digestible, I’ve broken them into two parts: 08:00-09:15 and 09:16-11:30. Here’s the first:
- 08:00: ET318, Nairobi; 737 MAX 8
- 08:30: ET829, Victoria Falls (continues to Bulawayo); 737 MAX 8
- 08:30: ET332, Entebbe; 737 MAX 8
- 08:35: ET835, Windhoek; 787-9
- 08:35: ET835, Gaborone; 737 MAX 8
- 08:40: ET809, Johannesburg; A350-900
- 08:40: ET931, Enugu; 737 MAX 8
- 08:40: ET917, Cotonou; 737 MAX 8
- 08:40: ET921, Accra; A350-900
- 08:45: ET508, Lomé (continues to Newark); 787-8
- 08:45: ET861, Brazzaville (continues to Pointe-Noire); 787-8
- 08:50: ET853, Antananarivo; 777-200LR
- 08:55: ET819, Maputo; 787-9
- 08:55: ET376, Mogadishu; 737-800
- 08:55: ET352, Juba; 737-700
- 09:00: ET322, Mombasa; 737-800
- 09:00: ET901, Lagos; 777-300ER
- 09:00: ET925, Libreville (continues to Yaoundé); 787-9
- 09:00: ET913, Douala (continues to Malabo); 787-8
- 09:00: ET847, Cape Town; A350-900
- 09:05: ET875, Ndola (continues to Blantyre); 737 MAX 8
- 09:15: ET368, Garowe (continues to Bosaso); Dash-8-Q400
July 21st: busiest period, part two
Most flights that leave 08:00-11:30 arrive back in Addis Ababa in the late evening, feeding services going to North America, Europe, Middle East, Asia, and other parts of Africa. However, the longest to West Africa (e.g., to Bamako and onto Dakar), shown in this ‘part two,’ remain overnight to return the next day to feed the critical intercontinental flights. In contrast, the shorter routes return in the afternoon, helping to beef up Ethiopian Airlines’ developing third wave.
Here’s the second part of the busiest period:
- 09:20: ET951, Abuja; A350-900
- 09:25: ET863, Lusaka; A350-900
- 09:25: ET873, Harare; A350-900
- 09:30: ET879, Seychelles; 737 MAX 8
- 09:30: ET362, Djibouti; 737-700
- 09:30: ET372, Hargeisa; 737-800
- 09:40: ET851, Luanda; 777-200LR
- 09:45: ET344, Khartoum; 737-800
- 09:50: ET877, Lilongwe; 787-8
- 09:50: ET312, Asmara; 737-800
- 10:00: ET825, Moroni; A350-900
- 10:00: ET841, Kinshasa; A350-900
- 10:05: ET939; N’Djamena; MAX 8
- 10:20: ET813, Zanzibar; A350-900
- 10:30: ET937, Niamey (continues to Ouagadougou); 787-8
- 10:35: ET815, Kilimanjaro; A350-900
- 10:35: ET935, Abidjan (continues to Conakry; 787-8
- 10:40: ET909, Bamako (continues to Dakar); 787-9
- 10:45: ET831, Goma; 737-700
- 10:45: ET805, Dar es Salaam; 737 MAX 8
- 10:50: ET871, Lubumbashi; 777-200LR
- 11:30: ET807, Kigali; 737-800
- 11:30: ET811, Bujumbura; 737 MAX 8
12:00 to 23:59
Most of the remaining 11h 59m of the day is very quiet, with no departures between 17:01 and 21:34. As you can see, the mid-afternoon third wave is growing in importance; it’ll be much busier in a few years. Most of the flights (except Johannesburg) return in the mid-evening, thereby feeding onward intercontinental flights. The evening departures are fed by arrivals from across the vast continent and return the following morning, feeding Ethiopian’s full African and non-African network.
- 14:15: ET378, Mogadishu; 737-800
- 14:35: ET354, Juba; Dash-8-Q400
- 15:20: ET374, Hargeisa; 737-800
- 15:30: ET342, Mombasa; 737-800
- 15:30: ET849, Johannesburg; A350-900
- 15:45: ET334, Entebbe; 737-800
- 15:45: ET314, Asmara; 737-800
- 15:55: ET364, Djibouti (via Dire Dawa outbound); 737-700
- 16:00: ET306, Nairobi; 737 MAX 8
- 16:00: ET346, Khartoum; 737-800
- 17:00: ET929, Accra; 737 MAX 8
- 21:35: ET843, Kinshasa;737-800
- 22:00: ET893, Harare; 737-800
- 22:05: ET452, Cairo; 777-200LR
- 22:10: ET891, Lusaka; 737-800
- 22:45: ET821, Kigali; 737-800
- 22:45: ET338, Entebbe; 737 MAX 8
- 23:15: ET308, Nairobi; 737 MAX 8
- 23:30: ET859, Johannesburg; 787-9
Across North America, Europe, Middle East, Asia, and other parts of Africa, 08:00-11:30 is Ethiopian Airlines’ primary intra-Africa departure bank of the day. It has 45 departures or over two-thirds of its total. Over half (56%) are by widebodies, such is the passenger and freight demand at this time. It is also a good way of increasing the utilization of widebodies in-between long-haul intercontinental services, especially for the newer types.
Ethiopian Airlines
Source: Simpleflying.com