Ethiopian Airlines is increasing Addis Ababa to Johannesburg to 3x daily. But that's not the real news: it had that many flights in 2018, 2019, and in early 2020, and is simply returning to that level. Instead, it's noteworthy because every flight every day will be by a widebody – the first time it has happened. It comes as São Paulo and Buenos Aires return to 1x daily and soon after the launch of Amman.

Ethiopian to Johannesburg

Ethiopian currently serves the large South Africa city 2x daily. It'll rise to 17x weekly from the end of October, with 3x daily on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and 2x daily on the other four days.

But from November 30th, it'll be 3x daily every day, in time for the Southern Hemisphere's peak summer, returning to a level last seen on a regular basis in March 2020. And each will be by either the A350 or 787.

The increase in frequency and the number of seats per flight because of being all-widebody has resulted in seats for sale rising by a whopping quarter over winter 2019 to a quarter of a million, as shown in the future below. It is by far the highest ever.

The schedule is as follows with all times local:

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A large market for Ethiopian

Johannesburg is an important market for Ethiopian. Indeed, of all of its international markets this coming winter, it'll be one of just five served 3x daily or more. It joins Dubai (3x daily, all widebody), Entebbe (3x daily, all narrowbody), Khartoum (3x daily, all narrowbody), and Nairobi (3x daily, all narrowbody).

Ethiopian's Johannesburg operation is helped by its interline agreement with Airlink and fellow South African regional operator, Cemair. These relationships enable the Star Alliance carrier to access multiple destinations in Southern Africa, which it couldn't serve using its own metal, increasing network, passenger volume, and revenue.

The partnerships follow the suspension of Ethiopian's codeshare with fellow Star member South African. Indeed, given SAA's continuing woes and that its all-important regional operation is now by independent Airlink, it would surely have pretty limited value.

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A look at Johannesburg passengers

Analyzing booking data for 2019, the last year unaffected by the pandemic, shows that Ethiopian carried approximately 371,000 Johannesburg passengers. It means that, with 463,000 seats for sale, it achieved a seat load factor of around 80%. Its passenger traffic was broken down as follows:

1. 78% of passengers transited over Addis Ababa to/from Johannesburg
2. 9% 'bridged' Addis Ababa and Johannesburg (e.g., Mumbai-Addis-Johannesburg-Durban)
3. 12% were point-to-point (only flew between Addis and Johannesburg)
4. 1% flew from Addis over Johannesburg

Where Johannesburg passengers go

Perhaps surprisingly, booking data shows that Ethiopian's largest transit market in 2019 was India, with three times as many passengers as number two, Israel. The rest of the top ten were Nigeria, the UK, China, South Africa, Sudan, Kenya, the UAE, and the Demographic Republic of Congo. These countries had around half of Johannesburg's total transit traffic.

If broken down at the airport level, the top markets were:

1. Mumbai over Addis Ababa to/from Johannesburg
2. Tel Aviv-Johannesburg
3. Delhi-Johannesburg
4. Khartoum-Johannesburg
5. Abuja-Johannesburg
6. London Heathrow-Johannesburg
7. Dubai-Johannesburg
8. Nairobi-Johannesburg (despite enormous backtracking!)
9. Hong Kong-Johannesburg
10. Dublin-Johannesburg

Have you flown Ethiopian? If so, share your experiences in the comments.

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  Ethiopian Airlines

  IATA/ICAO Code:

  ET/ETH

  Airline Type:

  Full Service Carrier

  Hub(s):

  Addis Ababa Bole International Airport

  Year Founded:

  1945

  Alliance:

  Star Alliance

  CEO:

  Mesfin Tasew Bekele

  Country:

  Ethiopia