Ethiopian Airlines

I have been flying with this airline for twenty years. At first it offered good service but since it has set off on the path of expansion it standards have been rapidly deteriorating. Flight staff are poorly trained and only seem interested in looking nice (important but not enough). Its planes on the Rome - Addis route are old filthy and uncomfortable. More often than not toilets don't work! I complained to their customer service and did not even get a reply now I am booking a a much more expensive airline.

It's a Dreamliner on this Addis Abeba to Shanghai route. Feeling happy for I love flying on the 787! This 10 hour flight has a roomy 2-2-2 configuration in business class. Although the flat beds are angled I was so exhausted that I slept well. The ground operations at the airport were completely disorganized so was happy to see that the staff onboard were much more collected. Had a great meal. Actually interesting choice of meals on this flight. While other airlines would have served a dinner and breakfast on a 10-hour overnight flight Ethiopian Airlines chose dinner and lunch combo. Two hearty meals. I like it for I was very hungry. Especially when they rolled out a tray of assorted Ethiopian specialities. Yummy! The IFE seemed to work well although with a very limited selection of movies. I also love the uniforms and branding of Ethiopian Airlines. The female uniforms are traditional - and the corporate colours very bright. Nearly fluorescent pink yellow and green. After a few flights with them I have to say they are excellent in the air but a total mess on the ground! Shame for they have a lot of potential.

IAD-ADD-ZNZ-ADD-EBB-ADD-IAD 12/24/14 - 1/9/15. Comfortable flights (777-200 LR 777-300ER 767-300ER). Service onboard is good. Crew is very helpful. Cabins were clean but on the long range flights the toilets ran out of paper (both toilet tissue and paper towels). Many reviewers have commented about cleanliness of aircraft. I would fault the clientele and not the airline. Each time I boarded the planes were clean. Boarding process in IAD EBB went smoothly as did transiting ADD for IAD and ZNZ. The boarding process in ZNZ and ADD for flight to EBB was chaotic. No announcement made as to cancellation of our original flight. We ended up on a entirely different aircraft 757-200 with a new flight number. Flight segments from ZNZ-ADD-EBB were open seating. This was my first experience with Ethiopian Airlines. I would not choose this airline again because one has to transit through ADD. Transiting through ADD can be chaotic or smooth depending on where your flight is headed. Kudos to Ethiopian for screening for Ebola on arrival. On all planes 757 767 and 777 there was plenty of legroom. Inflight entertainment was unavailable on 767.

Ethiopian airlines is terrible with consistent delays never making any announcements. After more than two hours of waiting for our flight it was a pleasant surprise that we got their new long-haul 787 Dreamliner on this relatively short 120 min flight from Arusha to Addis Ababa. Didn't have time to test out everything but I love the Dreamliner and its spacious 2-2-2 interior. Was great to get full-service on this short flight.

4 flights always on time. planes old and a bit dirty. Service ok. Food good. It's a average airline. Nothing special to mention. Transit in Addis is not a good experience.

The cabin was hot my TV did not work some toilets not functioning the flight attendants were rude. But those are all small quibbles compared to the 12-hour delay we experienced and the airline's refusal to take any responsibility for it. I was coming back to Pittsburgh from Kilimanjaro via Addis Ababa Rome and Washington. At Rome the plane had a mechanical error and Ethiopian sent us into the terminal. There was no gate agent to tell us what was happening or even where in the terminal to go. Instead of telling us that the problem would take 12 hours to fix which would have allowed us to see Rome a bit the airline kept telling us that boarding was imminent so we sat in the airport for around 12 hours. The airline bought each of us a croissant and a bottled water while the mechanics tried to fix the problem. Although there were other flights to the US leaving that morning the airline did not rebook us to those flights. Finally when we arrived in Washington twelve hours late the airline did not tell us about connecting flights or compensation and did not even provide a gate agent to talk to. Instead we were directed to email customer service. Although I was luckily able to get back to Pittsburgh the same night many others on the flight with longer connections had to spend an involuntary night in Washington. The flight from Washington to Addis Ababa was late too by about two hours. I deeply regret flying with Ethiopian and will never choose them again.

I flew 5 months ago from Paris to Libreville and Back with a transit in Addis Ababa. It was the worst flight experience I have encountered. The seats were filthy and old. I missed my flight from Addis to Libreville which left earlier than expected I presume. When I purchased the ticket they told me I had 2 hours for connection and I thought it was enough. I had to spend a night in Addis. Next morning we were taken to airport and flew to Libreville and found out that my luggage is still in Addis and was told to wait for the next flight. Finally they did manage to reclaim my luggage after 5 days in Gabon. The return flight was no different. Same old aircraft unprofessional staff. Everything was a disaster and I will recommend this airline to no one.

JNB-ADD-DXB return. Departing 11 Dec 14 returning 01 Jan 14. Comfortable flight good service smooth transiting in ADD price was about 50% of a direct flight with another airline - so at the end I made the right choice to fly Ethiopian. However the cabins were dirty really dirty. Surely Ethiopian Airlines management this is a basic thing that cannot be too difficult to address.

ET 906 Lomé to Addis Ababa 13th Dec 2014. ET 704 Addis Ababa to Brussels 14th Dec 2014. Check-in in Lomé was quick especially compared to Accra where the queue tends to be very long. Food was good on both legs. The flight from Lomé to Addis Ababa was in an older 737-700 and the inflight entertainment was poor the flight from Addis Ababa to Brussels was on a 787 Dreamliner and all was working properly. Good service for a very reasonable price.

We travelled with a group of 12 from Kinshasa to Mumbai (including 4 kids). We had booked our tickets almost 2 months in advance and received our boarding passes for our connecting flight to Mumbai in Addis Ababa. First of all when we got on the plane in Kinshasa the aircraft was not clean. There was garbage on the floor and in the seat pockets. The washrooms were not cleaned there was no toilet paper in some of them and some were even flooded. After taking off in from Kinshasa we landed in Brazzaville and spent another hour there for passengers to get off and on. It wasn’t until 3 hours after getting on board did we receive something to eat. This was an afternoon flight going right through lunch time. We had ordered special meals which were not honored. We were not given kids meals which were also ordered. There was no choice of food we were only given beef and informed they did not have any chicken left. This was quite surprising as we were sitting near the front. In Addis Ababa we were surprised to find that the gate for our connecting flight had been closed and the flight was leaving. The excuse we received was that the flight was full. After realizing that there were approximately 50 passengers left stranded they told us that they downgraded the aircraft and there was no more seats left. After hours of negotiating we were finally given a hotel and a boarding pass for the next day’s flight. At 1am (4hrs after landing) we finally had the information to go to our hotel. I’m a Silver Star Alliance member and my Frequent Flyer number was not added to my ticket. This is my second experience on Ethiopian. The first was equally bad however I thought I would give it a second chance. This has been the worst experience I have had on any airline.