#40 out of 94 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings.
113 reviews
We were staying at the Ibis Hotel at Geneva Airport so on my last full day in Geneva I headed there to get checked in.
I saw the Kuwait Airways A330 landing and would later see the KU cockpit crew outside the Terminal building.
2 Dnata ladies at the BA desk advised where ET usually checks in. I also saw the Saudia crew about to checkin for their Jeddah flight. GVA is the JED of Europe for arab carriers.
When I talked about Geneva being the Jeddah of Europe for Arab Airlines !
The not so great view from outside the terminal where you see the bland back of the RAM and Egyptair ticket desks ! Loving the pyramids !
When tracking the flight the day before, I was interested to learn that Geneva/Switzerland is only 1 hour behind Ethiopia !
After our complimentary hotel shuttle dropped us off to the terminal,we arrived inside Geneva Airport at approximatey 0510am. At 0520am, dnata staff started arriving to open up the checkin desks 62 to 67. Whilst we had been in the queue, it had gotten bigger and bigger by the minute. Initially I thought that perhaps the joining passengers are in a greater number. Find out the real reason later.
The inbound flight from Addis Ababa had left 90 minutes late so I knew that we would have a late departure out of Geneva. We were checked in at 0535am by a lovely gentleman named Ahmed from dnata. To have such friendly,professional and enthusiastic service at this time in the morning. It made me think of all the amazing service I have offered in the past to passengers no matter what time of day it is. I was very grateful to have been checked in by Ahmed. By the time we had been checked in, the queues must have had around 50 passengers in it.
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Always a bonus when I am below the allowance !
Real and branded Boarding Passes - loving the vibrancy !
Paper Clips are my own !
Digital Boarding Passes were also available - but I will always love a printed one ! Esepcially if it is real and not a receipt ! We were asked if we had checked in online, I advised I couldn't and we were immediately given 3 Boarding Passes.
At 0545am we went through security, which I must say is Amsterdam efficient - if you know you know !
Whilst walking into Departures, I saw a lady from Alptitude, whom I had bought souveniers from a few days earlier in Central Geneva ! She was equally pleasant here and it was nice to say hi.
Hermes magical display.
Take Off - Geneva Airport's French Language magazine - talk about not trying to appeal to the International Passenger !
I was feeling very peckish by now so had a Croissant and Juice from a Beach Shack style outlet named Street Food Company. The bright colours certainly made the eraly morning have a lively feel ! I was served by a very nicepolite young guy of Arab origin.
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I made my way towards gate C55 which I believed would be our gate. Just like in Oslo, it is only now that you do Passport Control ! I noted the gentleman had stamped my Passport very neatly so I thanked him for this and wished him a good day and likewise.
BA723 to London Heathrow being readied before her return home.
Whilst sitting at the gate, I found out that the gate has been changed to C53 ! Not a long walk away but you know how it is when you are comfortably seated and have to get up !
The Geneva Airport app is so funky !
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Our ride to Manchester arriving onto stand.
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A350 ET-AYA is named "Geneva" ! Ethiopian Airlines uniquely has the names of the aircraft on the rear lower fuselage. The font for the aircraft name has recently been refreshed. This Airbus was delivered to Ethiopian in November 2020 so was not even 2 years old at the time of travel. I am telling you this for a reason !
Only in Switzerland !
Hi United ! Hope to see you back at Manchester and soon !
An announcement was made for the ex BA/EZY passengers to come forward for document/boarding pass checks.
I got to see Ahmed again and thanked him for his lovely service and he smiled.
Boarding commenced at 0755am and we were one of the first to board. ET-AYA operated the inaugural ADD-GVA-MAN in October 2022.
Bear in mind my Brother had had his seat on 11H prebooked for nearly two weeks before travel and that Ethiopian Airlines knew we would be joining the flight in Geneva for a good 8 months for 2 of us,
After being welcomed by a friendly Airhostess in traditional Habesha dress, this is the scene that greeted me.
What a disgraceful impression and imagine I had been a first time flyer of Ethiopian Airlines,it would not have made me feel very welcome onboard at all. This poor display reflects very badly on Ethiopian Airlines. Very badly. Why not have a dedicated section for disembarking Geneva Passengers and Boarding Manchester passengers, surely this would help keep the cabin tidy ?
Actually before this disgusting scene, a male was sat with a suitcase open full of books on 11H. I politely told him that these were reserved seats. He slowly got up while smiling then spent the rest of the flight giving me evils. If you love this row so much then prebook it. Show all the attitude you want but these are still not your seats ! As you see, the seating area was filthy.
Used pillows,tissues,headrest covers, disposed cutlery and although out of sight a blanket all ,made the seat area look terrible. To think that not long after this flight, Ethiopian Airlines announced it would centralise all American bound / ex USA flights at Rome with a 55 minute turnaround. Very clearly, transit cleanliness is not the top priority for Ethiopian Airlines.
I felt a bit assured that at least when we left ET729 a few days earlier, we left our seat area in a decent condition.
Upon advising an Airhostess of the disgusting state of my seat area, she went away and the Inflight Manager went away and said a crew member will arrive to clean up rubbish from our seat area. She told me that cleaning is not done for this segment. Again this is very poor from Ethiopian Airlines, who proudly boast about being a world class African Airline. An Airhostess arrived with gloves and immediately picked up all trash and used items.
She then brought fresh pillows and blankets. Finally we would start our journey a bit cleaner than when we boarded.
Also, the pillow covers shuld have a different colour/design to ensure they are actually changed. With a bit of fluffing up. the pillows shown would essentially look unused. This is most unhygienic and unfriendly.
Boarding took forever due to the very high volume of joining passengers today. I am told that 30-40 is usually the maximum number. Again this A350 had shown two seats when booking but the configuration was changed to a row of 3 nearly two weeks before the flight. Either there was an error from the booking period or suddenly A350s of Ethiopian were rapidly having row 11 refitted !
A more realistic 2 hour transit means the entire cabin would be cleaned and refreshed after all passengers have disembarked with hoovering,wiping traytables/tvs, fresh pillows n blankets being the norm. 55 Minutes is nonsensical when even Star Alliance partner Singapore Airlines has 2 hour transits with the same aircraft model at Manchester. 90 passengers disembarked at GVA - there was a good 35 minutes before boarding for Manchester began. So why the messy cabin ? And why were cleaning staff not on hand ?
Bizarrely the night before and the seatmap still shows 2 seats on row 11JL !
If a dirty cabin on boarding was bad,you will never guess what…another limp tv screen ! Unlucky or what ?!
The difference being that with careful balancing,it stayed in place. I reprted this to the crew, I hope it got fixed by the time the aircraft departed later in the evening back to Geneva from Manchester.
Whoopsy ! My Brother now also has TV mania !
I love the bright user interface by Ethiopian Airlines.
A peek into Cloud 9 Business Class !
You can tell we are flying to Manchester with that rain !
Pushback was at 0819am and during the welcome announcement, the flight time was announced as 1hr 35 mins and it was mentioned that Ethiopian had won it's 6th consecutive year of awards. I take it that cabin cleanliness is not one of the awards.
The Cabin was sprayed and we were told it was harmless to clothes but to close our eyes.
The Safety video was inaudible when the engines started up at 0815am. due engines
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The seatpockets after I gave them a tidy up - how this looked before was not very tidy.
Geneva's homeboy and homegirl - Swiss+ and easyJet Switzerland !
At 0835am, we lined up and began a powerful take off from Geneva. I remember seeing the aicrcraft landing from Addis Ababa and here we were onboard for it's next trip of the day !
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I made a quick visit to the washroom, which I must mention was meticulously clean. A shame that this approach does not exist in the cabin.
On the previous report I focussed a lot on the IFE so here are some snippets from the Sheba Shopping catalogue. By the way no earphones were handed out to joining passengers heading to Manchester even if I had wanted to enjoy the IFE.
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Once we had levelled out, it was time for the inflight service. The passengers who had flown from Addis Ababa will have had dinner and no doubt a light or full breakfast, so this service was more a light refreshment. This consisted of a packaged sweet muffin and drink of choice. I went with an Orange Juice. I asked for some extra Muffins for Mum and Dad and got brought loads but only had room in my bag for 2 ! But I was grateful nonetheless. I really appreciated this kindness from Ms Riadet. By the way, after my toilet trip, I had noted some buns in packaging with MOML stickers in the galley. I was told these were not included in this service. I did not think much more of it.
When you wish this was your arrival weather in Manchester !
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Imagine my surprise when, minutes before landing, the three of us got offered a crispy Halal spicy chicken bun which was delicious ! The Airhostess specifcially told me it was Halal. I was really touched by this beautiful gesture ! I had asked the Inflight Manager for some goodies…then these arrived ! But what is inside ?!
Flight Information taken when there were 51 minutes to landing.
Views of Manchester on approach.
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At 0903am we landed into a dull Manchester - just as dull as the weather we left behind in Geneva !
Emirates 777-300ER about to fly to Dubai and then onwards to Lahore in Pakistan. The registration was A6-EPR.
A7-BHE of Qatar Airways heading to the runway rather late to go back home to Doha Hamad International as QR22.
If anyone tells me that Ethiopian's livery is not heavily inspired by Emirates I will laugh !
More planepsotting ! Lufthansa A321 D-AISL pushing back to Frankfurt.
Turkish Airlines A330 TC-JNR "Gaziantep" being readied for her daily TK1994 to Istanbul. Turkish Airlines has been flying this flight since 1996 which began with 3 x weekly 737s !
The brght red tail of any Turkish Airlines aircraft always brightens up any Airport anytime,anywhere !
The Sweetheart of the Sky - my beautiful Singapore Airlines getting ready for her trip to Houston.
Our arrival was on a remote stand so we disembarked by stairs which afforded these amazing views.
Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed my report !
Our Aircraft the same evening off on another longhaul trip ( and hopefully a much cleaner cabin ).
A return flight with gifts :)
Although the flight entails an early checkin, I can live with that. The checkin process and even gate change are a given when flying. But the poor condition of the cabin seriously let Ethiopian Airlines down. I would hope that someone in Ethiopian Airlines takes note of this as the poor impression of Ethiopian Airlines and Ethiopia is not the best. Although things got better after I complained, cabin cleanliness and presentation should be a top priority. It is not as though the aircraft arrived in Geneva and suddenly around a 100 passengers boarded to fly to Manchester. The Airline had known for at least 24 hours , if not longer, as to who the joining passengers were.
Les contributeurs de Flight-Report ont posté 6 avis concernant 3 compagnies sur la ligne Geneva (GVA) → Manchester (MAN).
La compagnie qui obtient la meilleure moyenne est Ethiopian Airlines avec 7.5/10.
La durée moyenne des vols est de 1 heures et 52 minutes.
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2 Comments
Thanks for sharing!
Thank You so much for reading my report and it is true that the transit cleaning needs an urgent review. A beautiful modern Aircraft let down by cabin defects and lack of cleaning. Given that Ethiopian is making Rome it's US transit hub with a 5t minute turnaround, this is the main area the Airline really need to focus on.
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