A few weeks after scheduling the return of the B737 MAX, Ethiopian Airlines has added the type on eight more routes in February. They'll mainly be used on a one-off basis as the carrier increasingly brings the type back online. Most destinations will be in Africa while venturing to Athens, Moscow, and Istanbul. However, two routes announced last year will no longer see it.

Ethiopian adds the MAX on eight routes

Ethiopian Airlines will use the B737 MAX from February 2nd, almost three years after the accident in March 2019 that resulted in the type's grounding. Ethiopian is Africa's largest operator and has four 160-seat MAX 8s, all presently stored at its Addis Ababa hub.

Around Christmastime, Ethiopian revealed that eight routes would see the MAX in February. According to the carrier's latest schedule upload and reflected in booking engines, eight additional routes (and 11 airports) will see the type next month. The extra flights are shown below:

  1. Addis Ababa (ADD) to Goma (GOM); February 3rd, 7th, 9th
  2. Blantyre (BLW) and onto Beira (BEW); February 5th only
  3. N'Djamena (NDJ); February 6th only
  4. Athens (ATH) and onto Moscow Domodedovo (DME); February 7th only
  5. Nairobi (NBO); February 7th only
  6. Lubumbashi (FBM); February 10th, 16th, 17th, 24th 
  7. Maputo (MPM); February 15th only
  8. Victoria Falls (VFA) and onto Gaborone (GBE); February 19th and 26th

As you'd expect, the specific flights on which the MAX is scheduled will typically replace the next-gen B737-800. Exceptions include N'Djamena, the capital of Chad, which will primarily see the smaller B737-700.

Ethiopian Airlines B737 MAX routes in February 2022
Blue = already announced. Yellow = new. Generally, the MAX will only operate a few flights to each destination. Exceptions are Entebbe (EBB), which will have 30 departures in February, Enugu (ENU, Nigeria), which will only see the type, and Istanbul (IST), which will welcome the MAX half of the time. Image: GCMap.

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No MAX to Dar Es Salaam or Moroni

Of previously scheduled MAX routes, Dar Es Salaam (Tanzania) and Moroni (Comoros Islands) will no longer see the type. The link to Comoros will remain fully by the B787-8. It has, in recent weeks, changed from non-stop to operating via Dar Es Salaam in both directions, but will revert to non-stop from March 27th.

In contrast, Entebbe (EBB) and Mombasa (MBA) now have more MAX flights in February than previously planned, while Cairo (CAI), Enugu (ENU), and Istanbul (IST) are unchanged. Khartoum (KRT) is down slightly.

Ethiopian 737 MAX
As one of its top markets, Ethiopian Airlines expects a high recovery rate, especially with reinstated passenger capacity. Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying

February 7th has the most MAX departures

February 7th has more MAX departures than any other day that month, according to OAG data. There will be seven outbound flights, as shown below in order of departure time from Addis. Those leaving 23:00-23:15 will mainly be fed by arrivals across the vast African continent, while those going after 10:00 will primarily have passengers from across Europe, North America, and Asia.

  1. 01:25, ET342 from Addis Ababa to Khartoum
  2. 10:10, ET322 to Mombasa
  3. 10:45, ET831 to Goma
  4. 11:45, ET334 to Entebbe
  5. 23:00, ET760 to Athens and onto Moscow
  6. 23:05, ET720 to Istanbul
  7. 23:15, ET308 to Nairobi

What do you make of the developments? Let us know in the comments.