Review of Ethiopian Airlines flight from Addis Ababa to Djibouti in Economy

I went to the Horn of Africa in December 2024 to some of the least visited places on Earth: Socotra, Somaliland, Djibouti and Eritrea.

Here’s my full itinerary:

Keflavík to London Luton, Easyjet
London Gatwick to Dubai, Emirates, economy class
Abu Dhabi to Socotra, Air Arabia
Socotra to Abu Dhabi, Air Arabia
Dubai to Hargeisa, FlyDubai, business class
Hargeisa to Addis, Ethiopian, economy class
Addis to Djibouti, Ethiopian, economy class
Djibouti to Addis, Ethiopian, economy class
Addis to Jeddah, Saudia, economy class
Jeddah to Asmara, Nas, economy class
Asmara to Dubai, FlyDubai, business class
Dubai to Frankfurt, Emirates, business class

I booked the Hargeisa to Addis to Djibouti flight for 17,000 Lufthansa miles. It was a very good deal as the regular price was €447. One Lufthansa mile is usually valued at €0.013 but in my case the value was the double, €0.026.

I didn't take any photos of the Hargeisa to Addis flight. I had arrived late to Hargeisa airport, I rushed through security control, check-in, passport control, another security control and another passport control and arrived 10 minutes before boarding. To imagine what Hargeisa Airport looks like, try to visualise a small airport built in Somaliland in 1958 that has not been renovated since then.

We left 20 minutes early. The flight was scheduled to be a B737 but it turned out to be a Dash-8 which I didn't mind.

My flight arrived to Addis ahead of schedule and I immediately received the following text messages:

Addis Airport seemed like a different century compared to Hargeisa: the airport of the Ethiopian capital city is huge and modern. I followed the signs for connecting flights, went through security then went to the Premium Plaza Lounge.

The lounge was nice and was almost completely empty.

There was a reasonably good choice of food.

I was starving. I had some chicken with potatoes.

My flight was not shown anywhere, and as the first leg was domestic (Addis to Dire Dawa), I wasn't sure if I didn’t need to clear immigration and go to the domestic terminal. I went to the Ethiopian Airlines desk where I got a new boarding pass with gate number A4, so I could stay at the international terminal.

The airport was quite deserted at this time of the day.

The flight was still not shown on the screens but there were passengers waiting at the gate for the flight to Djibouti.

An Ethiopian Dreamliner in the background.

Boarding was supposed to start at 16.04 but started only at 16.33.

The flight was only about a third full. Most passengers seemed to be expatriates working in Djibouti from all over the world; only a few people had Ethiopian or Djiboutian passports.

Our plane today was ET-ALM, a B737-700, built 20 years ago.

Economy class had the standard 3+3 configuration. I had 23L, a window seat, but as I didn't have neighbours I had all three seats.

The back of the economy class cabin:

An expected flight time of 55 minutes was announced to Djibouti. Now this flight was supposed to make a scheduled stopover in Dire Dawa in Eastern Ethiopia. This was also the information on Flightradar, and the screen at the boarding gate also showed Diredawa (sic). So this was quite confusing, and even at departure I was not sure where exactly we were going.

Push-back was at 17.09 for a scheduled departure time of 15.55. We took off at 17.24 from runway 07R.

The view after take-off:

A meal service started almost immediately after take-off with a small beef sandwich and water, soft drinks, fruit juices, wine and beer - full bar on a 55 minute regional flight.

I didn't have the sandwich as I had eaten in the lounge and I was planning to have dinner at the hotel; I had a coke as a drink.

It's rare nowadays but there was a printed on-board magazine.

The route map was the most interesting for me:

I learned about some new destinations:

Ethiopian has an extremely varied fleet:

We landed in Djibouti at 18.19 and were at the gate at 18.28 for a scheduled arrival time of 18.30. We skipped the stop in Dire Dawa so we arrived on time despite the late departure.

The cabin after landing:

As I had a pre-arranged e-visa and there were not many passengers on the flight, I cleared immigration in ten minutes.

Djibouti is a very interesting country. It's small (23,200 km²) and has only a population of about a 1,168,000. The land is arid, not really suitable for agriculture, but the country is located at the strait of Bab el-Mandeb which connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, a strategic position. Its harbour manages around 90% of Ethiopia's foreign trade, generating a huge income for Djibouti. The country also leases bases to French, American, Chinese and Japanese military forces, accounting for a total income of about $200 million a year.

Djibouti's countryside has some of the geographically most interesting sites on the continent.

Dimbiya canyon is very spectacular. It has a depth of 257 meters.

Lake Ghoubbet is a cove of the Gulf of Tadjoura, which is in turn a gulf of the Indian Ocean.

Modern windmills west of Lake Ghoubbet.

Toyota Land Cruisers are, as in most other countries of the area, the most popular cars. Here's one with a Djiboutian licence plate.

They've replaced camels most of the time but not always: a caravan of camels waiting salt to be loaded.

A hot spring with a water temperature of about 82 °C near Lake Assal.

One of the geographically most fascinating places in Africa: the lowest point of the continent, 155 meters below sea level, at Lake Assal, a lake with a salinity level ten times that of the sea, at the Northern end of the Great Rift Valley.