Summary
- Ethiopian Airlines plans to start flying to Poland this summer.
- The airline has already been granted slots at Warsaw Chopin.
- In the year to November 2023, 114,000 passengers flew between Warsaw and sub-Saharan Africa.
It is highly unusual for airport senior management to reveal that a new route is coming before the airline in question officially announces it. However, the CEO of Polish Airports has disclosed that Ethiopian Airlines will begin flying to Warsaw this summer. It confirms what the airline’s CCO said when I interviewed him in November. Note that Chopin is the Star Alliance’s seventh-largest airport by flights.
Ethiopian Airlines Reveals Its European Expansion Plans
Among other places, a second destination in the northern UK is planned.
What is happening?
Stanisław Wojtera, the CEO of Polish Airports, wrote the following on LinkedIn, translated from Polish:
I want to share some good news with you today. The most enjoyable moments are when the many months of work of the entire team bring well-deserved success. Thank you to the leading architects [employees] of our success! We will connect Warsaw with the largest hub in Africa! This summer we will see Ethiopian planes in their characteristic livery.
Photo: Oleh Yatskiv | Shutterstock
Ethiopian already has the slots…
It comes a month after Airports Coordination Limited, the slot coordinator, showed that Ethiopian was granted slots at Chopin for this northern summer season, which runs between March 31st and October 26th this year.
This is when I would generally caution that many airlines do not use their allocated slots and simply hand them back. However, given what Stanisław and the carrier have said, it probably will happen.
However, it is unclear when Ethiopian will announce it, and no more details (start date, the exact frequency, timings, aircraft, whether it will stop en route or continue elsewhere, and so on) are known.
A stop en route?
It is extremely likely that Ethiopian will stop somewhere en route to the Polish capital, and where it does will dictate whether the Boeing 787-8 (surely the most likely equipment and shown below) or 737 MAX 8 is used.
Photo: Suparat Chairatprasert | Shutterstock
Perhaps it might stop in Vienna – from which it codeshares with Austrian Airlines to Warsaw – or in Athens or elsewhere. We will have to wait and see.
Assuming it does stop en route rather than continuing elsewhere, it will surely remain at the airport all day before leaving for Addis Ababa in the late evening, arriving home early the next day. This is the same setup as virtually all of Ethopian’s other European routes to drive connectivity across the vast African continent.
A look at the numbers to Africa
Not surprisingly, Warsaw-sub-Saharan Africa is not a huge market. According to booking data, about 114,000 roundtrip passengers flew between them in the year to November 2023 (312 daily). That is not a bad foundation to build on with a few-times-a-week one-stop service.
Warsaw-Addis Ababa itself only had about 3,000 roundtrip passengers (eight daily), a tiny market. But it will, as always, be about transferring passengers over Ethiopia’s capital.
Photo: EQRoy | Shutterstock
Based on where Ethiopian flies, Johannesburg, Seychelles, Zanzibar, Cape Town, Nairobi, Lagos, Kilimanjaro, Kigali, Harare, and Luanda are the largest markets from Warsaw. They had about 54,000 roundtrip passengers (148 daily).
What do you make of it all? Let us know in the comments section.
