Ethiopian Airways Launches Europe’s Shortest Airbus A350 Flights

Ethiopian Airways is Africa’s largest service, though there may be not a lot competitors for that title. On January 6, the Star Alliance member introduced its newest European metropolis: Lyon. It will fly there through Geneva. Ethiopian has many present one-stop European routes.

The Geneva-Lyon leg will cowl simply 53 nautical miles (98 km) every approach. It’s going to, unsurprisingly, develop into Europe’s new shortest Airbus A350 operation and shortest scheduled widebody service. However there is a draw back. Fifth freedom visitors rights don’t appear to be obtainable.

Ethiopian Provides Lyon To Its Community

Ethiopian has served France for many years. For more often than not, this essentially meant Paris CDG. Issues have modified in recent times, coinciding with its aggressive growth and its vital function in connecting Africa to the world. In 2019, the service started Marseille flights. And now, in 2026, it’s going to launch service to Lyon. It will have passenger flights to 3 French cities and airports for the primary time.

On July 2, it’s going to raise off from its Addis Ababa hub to Lyon, with a three-weekly operation. All flights will make the most of the 348-seat Airbus A350-900. This has 30 enterprise seats with a totally flat mattress (1-2-1 or 2-2-2) and 318 financial system seats (3-3-3; 32″ pitch). In accordance with ch-aviation, Ethiopian now has 22 A350-900s. The variant is now its main widebody, overtaking its 20 Boeing 787-8s.

At simply 53 nautical miles (98 km) every approach, Geneva-Lyon can be Europe’s new shortest A350-operated flight. (It’s marginally shorter than British Airways’ shortest Boeing 777 service.) Cirium Diio knowledge reveals Geneva-Lyon is lower than half the gap from Milan Malpensa to Zurich, which was to be primary in 2026 and which can also be operated by Ethiopian.

Dangle On: Why All Day In France?

The working plane will stay on the bottom in Lyon for 11 hours. Attributable to Addis-Europe having little demand (apart from Rome), the day-long wait is to maximise two-way connectivity at its Addis hub. Most of Ethiopian’s flights from throughout the huge African continent arrive in Addis within the mid-to-late night. As such, lots of its European (and Asian, Center East, and North American) flights depart within the very early morning. At 12:10 am, Lyon can be no exception.

Most of Ethiopian’s Africa-wide providers depart from Addis Ababa within the morning, ranging from about 08:00. As such, lots of its European (and Asian, Center East, and North American) flights arrive house within the very early morning. Once more, Lyon can be no exception, with a scheduled arrival time of 4:55 am, though that is a bit sooner than most of them.

The service’s A350s will keep on the bottom in Lyon all day. That is to make sure that flights are timed to attach with the most important variety of inbound and outbound African flights. Different airways do comparable issues. Icelandair, for instance, grounds its plane in some US airports for twenty-four+ hours to drive feed.

In Ethiopian’s case, it’s a less expensive and lower-risk possibility than utilizing separate plane to serve Geneva and Lyon. And Lyon itself couldn’t maintain a standalone operation anyway, as reserving knowledge for the 12 months to October 2025 reveals visitors just isn’t significantly excessive. Essential targets will embrace Cape City, Douala, Johannesburg, Kinshasa, the Seychelles, Yaoundé, and Zanzibar.

Ethiopian’s One-Cease European Routes

The map above reveals all of Ethiopian’s one-stop European providers in July. They could be considerably totally different at different occasions of the 12 months. Current additions embrace Warsaw, launched in July 2024 because of the Star Alliance connection, and Porto, which first noticed the service in July 2025 on account of its incapacity to acquire Lisbon slots.

Some European airports are served on a standalone foundation. Flights don’t cease en route and will not be prolonged elsewhere. They embrace Athens, Brussels, Frankfurt, Istanbul Airport, London Gatwick, London Heathrow, Moscow Domodedovo, Paris CDG, and Rome Fiumicino. Beforehand, a number of of those airports—even Paris CDG—had been tagged with one other airport.

Word that Ethiopian’s one-stop North American providers through Rome don’t rely, as they merely cease to refuel and probably change crew. It has separate, standalone Addis-Rome-Addis flights, which do not go elsewhere.