Ethiopian Airlines

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.

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.

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.

Have recently flown Addis Ababa - Gondor - Lalibella - Addis Ababa over a period of two weeks. I was very impressed with their aircraft cabin crew and punctuality. In fact flights are inclined to leave early so make sure you're at the airport with plenty of time to spare. This is also necessary as security is tight and takes a little while to get through if there is a crowd. All flights were full so booking in advance definitely recommended. Only the Addis - Gondar outbound flight had a meal service (quite good roll but very rushed. I was in the back row and was delivered my meal as the cabin crew were asked to prepare for landing) - which surprised me as it's only a one hour flight. All other flights had a drink service. I paid a high premium for my these flights as I had arrived into Ethiopia on Emirates rather than Ethiopian Airlines. Anyone arriving on their own airline gets a big discount. Still I recommend them highly. Very efficient.

Melbourne - Addis Ababa. Friendly comfortable polite attentive staff. Good food plenty of leg room. Was very pleasantly surprised by the high quality. would definitely use again.

Eighth round trip with Ethiopian (EAL). The good - the B787 service from IAD-ADD-JUB in a mere 19 hours which is blazing fast. The con's - one flight cancelled outright without notice which added 6 hours to my trip. Another flight on the 13NOV14 trip suffered a weather delay of 90 minutes at IAD due to fog in the morning. The result was a 09:04 arrival in Addis for a 09.50 flight to Juba which was still on the ground. Five of us needed to make that connection and expressed this to the staff but the did not prioritize our exit from the aircraft. We approached four different airport employees and were met with varying degrees of indifference and inaction. Finally arriving at Terminal 1 (for regional flights) the aircraft that had been there had left. No flights for Juba were listed either as boarding or for the rest of the day. No gate agent here and security agents and lounge staff directed us to Immigration to locate one. Got back to Terminal 2 and onto a flight to Entebbe and a connection there to Juba. In the end not only I but my checked bag made it to Juba - granted five (5) hours late.

Flew YYZ-ADD (Toronto to Addis) on November 8 2014 to begin my east African honeymoon. I was excited to fly on Ethiopian's Dreamliner for almost 13 hours. The trip was pretty good though not as good as I had hoped. I previously flew on Air Canada's Dreamliner and the difference was like night and day. Ethiopian's seats were already weathered - which is stunning considering the aircraft is brand new. The washrooms were absolutely atrocious. What was comforting to me was that I witnessed one of the flight attendants going into the washrooms with blue rubber gloves to clean it. I was appalled to see her cleaning the galley and serving a drink with the same gloves to a passenger who came to the back. Then flew the airline from ADD to DAR (Dar Es Salaam) a few days later and had the worst airline experience: Our travel documents indicated the plane was a Boeing 737-700. Great planes for short to mid-haul flights. We boarded a very old and decrepit Boeing 757. Mechanics were fixing it as we boarded. Not a comforting sight. I asked to sit beside my wife (we're on our honeymoon) and we were told we were seated together. We weren't. The guy in between us was the largest man on the flight. He was so large any other airline would have asked him to purchase a 2nd seat. He didn't even wear his seatbelt but covered it up with pillows. The flight attendants didn't want to ask him to fasten his seat belt until I made a fuss about it telling them that he is endangering other passenger. Finally they got a seat belt extension for him. We found other seats bulkhead towards the back of the plane. It smelled so bad from the washrooms we were barely able to eat. My table tray was broken. I mentioned it to the flight attendant and she said "it's fine". The food ended up place on my lap instead. As mentioned I barely ate it anyway. No in-flight entertainment. I have one more flight on this journey with Ethiopian. I pray it will be better. The airline will receive a letter from me regarding service but most importantly safety.

While we did get to and from our destinations mostly on time it is difficult to understand how Ethiopian Airlines is a member of Star Alliance. Both on the ground and in the air this airline needs significant improvement. Our trip began with a chaotic boarding process that lacked any organization. Multiple lines and pushing your way onboard seemed to be standard procedure. Once onboard the flight attendants did the absolute minimum required of them performing meal and drink services and then disappearing. While they did their job it was done without any warmth or hospitality. On the ground in Addis Ababa you are met with more chaos and disorganization. Flights are cancelled or changed without any notice (the flight is simply removed from the display in the terminal as if it did not exist) security lines extend the entire length of the terminal and there is one representative at an information desk to provide assistance for all passengers in the terminal. This was our overall experience on all the Ethiopian Airlines flights we took. While they may fly new equipment such as the 787 that cannot hide their failures in service and organization. Even for a little extra money choosing an alternate carrier would be well worth your consideration.