In 2019, Ethiopian Airlines’ US operation had an average seat load factor of 75%. It had the following routes, two of which no longer operate:
Where did US passengers go?
Whether surprising or not, the largest chunk of Ethiopian Airlines’ passengers was point-to-point (P2P), as shown below. About four in every ten flew only between Addis Ababa and the US.
- P2P: 158,000 passengers in 2019
- Transited Addis Ababa: 97,000
- Flew xxx-USA airport served by Ethiopian-Addis Ababa: 75,000
- Bridged (flew xxx-USA-Addis Ababa-xxx): 66,000
If you add P2P to the third category, a total of 233,000 passengers (nearly six in ten) didn’t transit beyond Ethiopia. Seattle-Addis Ababa, Minneapolis-Addis Ababa, Atlanta-Addis Ababa, Denver-Addis Ababa, and Las Vegas-Addis Ababa were the biggest markets because of the diaspora. They flew fellow Star Alliance carrier United, and passengers primarily connected to Ethiopian in Dulles and Chicago.
Notice the last category. This is where passengers ‘bridge’ two airports/hubs. Ethiopian’s largest bridging origin and destination (O&D) market was Minneapolis-Jijiga (Ethiopia), followed by Minneapolis-Hargeisa (Somaliland), Detroit-Djibouti, Columbus-Hargeisa, and Seattle-Asmara (Eritrea), also driven by the diaspora.