Why Were Two Ethiopian Airlines 777s In Miami?

Wonder how the cruiselines treat those crewmembers during all this...

I mean, Ethiopian Charters can't be that bad, but I doubt they will get payed...

Nice story anyway.

So many crazy flights these days. I get up and spend an hour on FlightRadar24 instead of working.

Did you see that a HiFly A332 operated CPH-SFJ today as GL6781.

Ethiopian also operated charters to Salt Lake for missionaries stuck in Africa last week https://kutv.com/news/local/ethiopian-airlines-flights-return-missionaries-from-africa-to-utah-due-to-pandemic

Also Wizzair operating repatriation flights to LAX. LAX-BUD on a high density A321...

Wow, with loads this low, you'll soon be able to get on a 777 and tell them where you want to go!

Some other interesting flights: wizzair cargo a321neo from shanghai to budapest via Irkutsk and Nur Sultan, hi fly operating random repatriations, +a ton of cargo 747s all over Europe

I think there is still demand for the Addis to IAD and to ORD flights because Ethiopian Airlines is really the last airline standing in terms of carriers that can carry people from many places in the whole of Africa to the US. I am in Zambia, and because Emirates and South African have stopped flying, I have only one possible route left to get back: Lusaka to Addis and Addis to IAD or ORD. I check everyday to make sure it is still available and that more US cities haven't been cancelled.
It is super interesting that the re-fueling stops in Dublin aren't happening! And it's good to know because if I do make the trip back, it should be a bit faster than expected. Also, if it's that empty, probably no need to pay more for an upgrade. 🙂

@Yreal its a good point. These cruise ship workers are already exploited by cruise lines (which is why they aren’t based out of the US) and I feel really bad for them given the COVID outbreak. For many of them it could literally mean them and their families starving or not.

that is so interesting. Loved this story!

They are probably the last airline that people can still fly to connect between Europe/America and East/Southeast Asia and get home, with no transit restrictions. Also, Delta has resumed flying DL582/3 between DTW and PVG, using the A359 as a cargo plane as the cargo demand is so high that the revenue is comparable to a normal season passenger flight. United also has flown between PVG and ORD/SFO in the past few days.

LATAM operated 2 days ago a GRU-JNB-DPS flight, also getting home stranded cruise ship workers. That should have been quite a sight, a South American company landing in an Asian airport!

There have been ET planes in SLC recently as well.

These are ships crew repositioning back from Miami. There are thousands of Filipinos who work on board both cruise liners and other freight ships. They are really hard workers and usually poorly paid taking care of not only passengers , but themselves and also worried about their families
Also think of the oil and offshore workers on rigs who are still required

@Yreal and @Abe, at least one cruise ship (Celebrity Edge) moved their crew to passenger cabins and opened the rest of the ship for their use while passenger operations are on hold.

LO will be operating two repatriation flights EZE-WAW and SYD-WAW (non-stop?) tomorrow. This could be the first time their planes have ever landed at these airports

Lucky some other interesting flights:

Cargo carried by passenger aircraft:
Air Baltic A220 nonstop China (URC-RIX)
Wizz A321 BUD-TSE-PVG-IKT-TSE-BUD
LO 787 china-Europe

Passenger:
Wamos Hawaii-Europe nonstop 747
Wizz 321neo LAX/JFK/YYZ repatriation via Iceland
Air Asia to Prague

I saw Wamos 744 doing El Salvador, Honduras, Miami, Madrid then, at least the one I saw, Denpasar in Indonesia.

Thx so much for all this nice info.

It's no surprise for any airlines to do unscheduled flights , it is called chartering a flight, as long as you pay ,and an airlines could get both an airspace permission and landing ....it is actually good proposal for any of them ...

Yes I know. It is nice to see those surprises in our local airports. After Hurricane Maria hit we had a ton of aircraft that were not regular in sju. It was nice indeed.

I like flying with Ethiopian airlines. They have always amazing crew members and great handling of passengers and luggage. Look, they are making history on serving the globe during these scary time. I feel what it mean for stranded people away from home. Thank you for sharing this story.

There was a United 777-200 at CMB last week too, they normally don't fly here. Maybe Military or Medical Aid, maybe for Embassy staff?

ET8599 777 out of Togo headed to New Orleans. Seems quite random.

Ethiopian has been a critical component of evacuations lately! I personally evacuated on a charter from NSI in Yaounde, Cameroon to Washington IAD on 31 MAR. A flight you would NEVER ordinarily see.

Four Ethiopian B777's (-260(LR) are flying at the moment from New Orleans to Addis Ababa.

ET-ANC over Egypt, ET_ANR over Malta, ET-ANP over the Azores and ET-ANO over the middle of the Atlantic.

Thank you for this interesting story, Ethiopian airlines is over 70 years old and a lot of experience flying the globe. Service in the plane is excellent and crews are amazing. It is a bit of silver lining for the cruise line crew that there flight back home is relaxing.

Thank you! I live downtown Miami, drove by MIA on Sunday & told my daughter the same thing: “look at those 2 Ethiopian Airlines planes, I’ve never seen before, I bet they have to do with COVID...” They were passenger, right next to Air France etc

I am thinking they were there to drops off Illegal migrants from Africans