Ethiopian Airlines Mulls Flights to Australia

Ethiopian Airlines is revisiting plans to start flights to Australia, according to Telila Deressa Gutema, the carrier’s regional manager responsible for Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand.

Posting on LinkedIn last week, Gutema said the airline was preparing to launch its first flights to Australia. “I have been driving forward our strategic goal of expanding our services to Australia,” he wrote. “The groundwork has been laid, and the stage is set for this significant milestone.”

In recent months, Gutema has posted about meetings with officials from Sydney (SYD) and Melbourne (MEL) Airports.

“It’s no longer a question of if, but when,” he wrote. “Ethiopian Airlines is definitely destined to serve both Sydney and Melbourne.”

Aero South Pacific understands Melbourne presently has the edge over Sydney for the first flights.

The issue around the when question appears to be aircraft availability, or the lack thereof. “The missing piece of the puzzle? The aircraft,” Gutema continued. “To all aircraft lessors, leasing companies, and owners with A350s or B787 Dreamliners available for lease or sale, we are looking for you.”

Australia is the only inhabited continent not currently served by Ethiopian Airlines. While the carrier has floated the possibility of flights to Australia previously, they have never eventuated.

Nonetheless, its Addis Ababa (ADD) hub presents as an interesting alternative to traditional transit ports on the well-worn route between Australia and Europe. Transiting in Addis Ababa would also provide Australian travellers with the fastest routes into Central and Western Africa, which are currently accessed via Johannesburg (JNB) or the Gulf hubs.

Presently, there are no carriers operating scheduled flights between Australia and Ethiopia, and there are few services between Australia and Africa. South African Airways operates between Johannesburg and Perth (PER), while Qantas flies between Sydney (SYD) and Johannesburg, and is soon to restart services between Perth and Johannesburg.