Addis Ababa Airport

✅ Verified Review | Addis Ababa is certainly one of the worst airports when it comes to comfort and especially to security screening. There is a Gold Track for Star Alliance passengers with Gold status, as well as business / first class passengers, but this Gold track is so badly organized and controlled that you might go faster on the normal track: chaotic queuing, bad flow of personnel during the checking, insufficient number of trays for laptops, etc., creating even more chaos. Gates changing, without proper announcements, displays showing different gate numbers, you could easily miss your flight there. To be avoided if possible.

✅ Verified Review | The airport is horrifically dirty and rundown. It is overcrowded and looks more like a local market than an international airport. The bathrooms are temporary, dirty and disgusting. The signage is very misleadig and the boards are completely wrong, we were delayed by 30 minutes and before boarding even commenced the board showed our flight status as departed. The seating is extremely limited and the seating that is available is dirty or broken. The ground staff are clueless and couldn't be bothered to help. It is absolutely disgraceful. I have travelled to many African airports before, I am an African citizen and all I can day is avoid this place at all costs!

❎ Unverified | Reading the previews reviews, I was worried. ADD is not a great airport - well below average - but it is not the end of the world. And with the opening of the extension next year, it should improve. Negatives: 1) Very crowded: they are building an extension and advertise it will be ready in 2017. Although they might be able to use small parts of the new building by end of year. I think it is more likely to open mid-2018. 2) Smell is one small area, but as you walked away it did not bother us. I avoided the toilets. 3) Lack of signage: our connecting gate was actually right next to our arriving gate but one has no idea where to go, and screens only display flights in the next hour or so. 4) Nothing to eat or drink past security. Positives: 1) Connecting gate was next door (I have had horrible experiences at CDG and LHR). 2) Food at the lounge was delicious (Although it was 8am, I avoided the western eggs and potatoes and took local dishes. 3) Duty free stores are a little different (not a mess): bought some local coffee beans and Ethiopian wine from the Rift Valley. I have no doubt this is much more expensive than in Addis but where can you find this wine in the West? The best coffee selection is actually at a tiny store next to security. In conclusion, not a good airport, but you will survive. Things should get better during course of 2018. This being said Ethiopian airlines was excellent.

❎ Unverified | Its a small primitive airport terminal, though serving many passengers coming and going. Its very busy, very few overpriced shops, the toilets are filthy and crowded. The eating facilities also look dirty (I didn't risk eating there). Considering the amount of people it handles, it should be fixed up to a much better standard.

✅ Verified Review | Utter chaos at Addis Ababa airport. Over 20 flights leaving in the space of 30 mins between 11-11.30 pm and only 2 security check gates open. Hundreds of people trying to get in and board their flights. No staff from Ethiopian Airlines or airport staff. Recipe for stampede. Definitely avoid this airport if possible.

✅ Verified Review | In a word - awful. Avoid at all costs. The airport lives up the other reviews. Its a completely disorganized mess. It smells of cigarette smoke and urine. I encountered possibly the rudest staff from both the airport authority and Ethiopian airlines at this airport. The general attitude was dismissive and they seemed as if they couldn't care. Our flight gate was changed and no one in the waiting area was notified. when we eventually inquired as to what is happening we were told that the flight is boarding at another gate. Boarding was chaotic and the boarding agent did not seem to know what he was doing. The airport is completely understaffed, overcrowded and downright filthy! Do not use the bathrooms if you have to transit here. Avoid this airport at all costs!

✅ Verified Review | Awful in every way. Dirty, smelly and overcrowded. There is very limited seating and dining optionts. Toilets are disgusting and very crowded. Shopping is very limited and overpriced. Beware that you cant take a drink into the departure lounge. There are no toilet facilities in this area either.

✅ Verified Review | You will never find a worse airport in the world. Addis Ababa is horrible from A to Z. Way too small for the number of people it handles, it is crowded and completely disorganised. Because of poor maintenance, its roof often leaks, flooding parts of the terminal, and escalators and internet do not work (even in the lounges). The lights are gloomy, similar to those of a hospital, and there is permanent electrical "grilling" noise around. The toilets are only slightly better than those found in rural Ethiopia despite the seemingly large number of cleaners walking and chatting around. The restaurant and drinks offer is abysmally poor: there is one disgusting "international" restaurant and one even more disgusting "Chinese" restaurant. Both are always overcrowded, with non-English speaking staff, disorganised and incredibly expensive and dirty. The "London Satellite Café" should simply be destroyed and replaced with international food chains or nice restaurants like the ones found in downtown Addis Ababa. Forget about Ethiopian Airlines lounges: if you can ever find a seat available (they are overcrowded), they offer bad food, are not clean and Internet works 1% of the time. Duty free shops look more like street stalls than anything else and staff do not hesitate to haggle over prices. Forget about using credit cards: out of the 20+ times I've transited through this airport, their machines have never worked. Despite them not working, you will find staff assigned to handling the credit card machines only, separate from the cashier, showing how irrational everything is in this airport. Staff hardly ever speak English, do not wear uniforms (hence are hard to identify) and are rude and aggressive, shouting at passengers all the time. I speak Amharic and have heard some of the staff make inappropriate comments about foreigners who were not "quick enough" through security. The Chinese are renovating and expanding the airport, but I strongly doubt it can be brought to international standards given where it is now. Simple steps such as cleaning it, putting international standard restaurants, cafés and a nice traditional Ethiopian restaurant, fixing escalators, putting better lights, closing the smoking areas, replacing some of the current staff and making the internet work would go a long a way into fixing the issues. Avoid transiting through here at all costs if you have a choice when travelling to Africa.

✅ Verified Review | This is by far the worst and most backward airport in the world, where the "Regime" running the airport seem to think it is OK to be rude, surly and unhelpful to passengers. Knowing the level and culture of maintenance in Ethiopia as a whole, I was not happy being subjected to a mobile scanner with no name, when I enquired, I was subjected to abuse by the operators who spoke little to no English. I will never fly via/from/to Addis Ababa airport again!

✅ Verified Review | I have never ever been to a worse airport than Addis Ababa. It's like a street market in a building with airplanes parked outside. Toilets are disgusting beyond belief, shops are full of either local craft not befitting the standard of Ethiopian artists, or tired and old consumer goods radically overpriced. Restaurant (if you could call them that) prices are above that of prices in most decent city establishments, and the whole airport is a run down dump with worn chairs, dirty corridors and haphazard arrangements. Worse however are the jammed and slow security lines, and despite all the rigmarole of shoes off etc, I'm not sure why they bother as I saw at least 10 passengers go through and out the other side with various bottles of water, opened and unopened, which is completely in opposition to the 100ml sealed liquids rules. I hope I never ever have to experience this dismal place again, and even though they say the airport is being upgraded, I think it will end up with the same content and poor regulations in a new or refurbished space, so not much is likely to change.