Ethiopian Airlines has continued its strong form at the 
The carrier is the largest in Africa, and has the continent’s fleet, and the addition of another six examples of the Airbus A350-900 certainly won’t do it any harm on either of these fronts. Ethiopian Airlines already operates both this model and the larger Airbus A350-1000, highlighting its commitment to the widebody family.
Ethiopian Airlines’ Airbus A350 Operations In A Nutshell
Tuesday, November 18th, 7:50 am EST | 4:50 pm Local
According to present fleet data made available by ch-aviation, Ethiopian Airlines currently has a grand total of 25 Airbus A350 family jets at its disposal. This figure is split between four stretched A350-1000s with an average age of 0.8 years old and 21 standard A350-900s with an average age of 6.2 years old. aeroLOPA shows that the carrier favors two-class layouts on these jets, with 348 seats on the A350-900 and 395 on the A350-1000.
As far as their usage is concerned, scheduling data from Cirium, an aviation analytics company, shows that Ethiopian Airlines’ top destinations by frequency from Addis Ababa with the Airbus A350-1000 include Lagos (LOS), London Heathrow (LHR), Frankfurt (FRA), and Accra (ACC). As for the A350-900, these jets are most often flown to the likes of Dubai (DXB), Milan (MXP), Shanghai (PVG), Toronto (YYZ), and Windhoek (WDH).
Ethiopian Airlines Is On Strong Form At This Year’s Dubai Airshow
Tuesday, November 18th, 7:40 am EST | 4:40 pm Local
Ethiopian has certainly come out all guns blazing at this year’s airshow, and has wasted no time in making the headlines with big-money orders from aircraft manufacturers based on both sides of the North Atlantic Ocean. Indeed, today’s Airbus deal complements the carrier’s purchase of 11 more units of the Boeing 737 MAX 8, with the US planemaker announcing this deal yesterday, hot on the heels of securing a 777X order from Emirates.
Ethiopian Airlines Group CEO Mesfin Tasew, who was present at today’s A350 order signing ceremony with Benoît de Saint-Exupéry, Airbus’ EVP of Commercial Aircraft Sales, explained that he was “delighted to expand our Airbus fleet size with this order.” He added that doing so enables the carrier to “strengthen our partnership with the Airbus company,” and build on its role as “the continent’s leading airline and the largest operator of the A350.”
On an operational level, Airbus is looking forward to seeing Ethiopian Airlines continue to optimize its day-to-day flying with the increased presence of aircraft from the A350 family. To this end, Benoît de Saint-Exupéry explained that “the A350’s state-of-the-art technology, efficiency and versatility will bring even greater value to Ethiopian’s operations.” Passengers and crew also stand to benefit from its more comfortable ‘Airspace’ cabin.
Ethiopian Airlines Orders More Airbus A350-900s
Tuesday, November 18th, 7:30 am EST | 4:30 pm Local
After a strong Monday from its US rival Boeing, today really is proving to be Airbus’s day at the 2025 Dubai Airshow. Indeed, the firm has already secured a deal with Abu Dhabi-based UAE flag carrier Etihad Airways involving A330neo, A350-1000, and A350F widebodies, as well as penning a Memorandum of Understanding with flydubai for 150 A321neo jets worth $24 billion. Now, Airbus has made it a hat-trick with an African order.
Specifically, the multinational European aircraft manufacturer has just announced that Ethiopian Airlines has added another six examples of the A350-900 to its order book. This modern widebody twinjet is, as Airbus puts it, “designed to fly up to 9,700 NM (18,000 km) non-stop,” and Ethiopian Airlines is the type’s largest African customer. Mesfin Tasew, the Ethiopian Airlines Group CEO, welcomed the deal, explaining today at the Dubai Airshow that:
“This milestone order further supports our vision to grow sustainably while providing a world-class travel experience to our passengers and strengthening our position as the aviation leader in Africa.”