Oh, Ethiopian Airlines, why you gotta do me like that?!
In this post:
Ethiopian Airlines is notorious for plane swaps
There’s not a global airline in the world that more frequently swaps planes than Ethiopian Airlines. That’s to say that that when you book, your flight will show as being scheduled to be operated by one type of aircraft, and then when you actually travel, it could be a completely different type of aircraft.
There are of course all kinds of legitimate reasons airlines need to swap the aircraft type on a flight — sometimes there are irregular operations, sometimes demand has shifted significantly, etc. However, the frequency with which Ethiopian swaps planes is on a completely different level. And that says nothing of the inconsistent business class product even within each fleet type.
A couple of days ago, I shared how I’m headed to Africa, in my quest to fly Ethiopian Airlines’ brand new Airbus A350-1000. I booked an itinerary where the first segment was supposed to be operated by a Boeing 787-9, and the second segment was supposed to be operated by an Airbus A350-1000.
Now I received my online check-in invitation, and my seats on both flights have changed. Of course we know what that means — there were aircraft swaps! Now both of my flights are scheduled to be operated by Airbus A350-900s, both in the old configuration.
Grrrr! Okay, admittedly I care way more about aircraft types than the average person, since I’m reviewing these flights. Heck, I might be the only person onboard who actually cares about which plane operates these routes.
If there’s any silver lining, it’s that my flights haven’t departed yet. For all I know, there might be another plane swap — maybe I’ll get a Boeing 737 MAX on one flight, and maybe Ethiopian Airlines will bring a Boeing 707 out of my retirement for my second flight. Who knows. 😉
I don’t understand why this is so common, though?!
Does anyone understand why Ethiopian Airlines swaps planes so often, while virtually no other airline in the world does it to this level? Like I said, plane swaps happen every so often for legitimate reasons, but I just don’t get what Ethiopian has to gain with this. A few theories and questions:
- Is Ethiopian Airlines just literally the best airline in the world at matching capacity to demand, by constantly optimizing the aircraft it schedules on flights?
- Does Ethiopian Airlines have the world’s least or most complex fleet planning software? Fleet planning is a puzzle under the best of circumstances, let alone when you’re switching around your flights constantly
- I assume flight attendants are trained on all aircraft, but isn’t it logistically complicated for pilots, who are typically only rated on one type of aircraft? I know a lot of Ethiopian pilots are ex-pats and they work a certain number of days and then go home, so do they just sit around in Addis Ababa and find out on short notice where they’ll fly, or…?
- Doesn’t this ever cause operational issues at airports, like if a 737 is initially scheduled, and then a much larger plane is swapped in? Or is the airline really good at taking those factors into account?
The fact that Ethiopian is in a league of its own when it comes to plane swaps makes me wonder if the carrier’s strategy is completely illogical, or if the Star Alliance airline has figured out an optimization strategy that no other airline has.
Bottom line
Ethiopian Airlines is notorious for plane swaps, and unfortunately I’ve been ETed for my upcoming itinerary. I booked just a couple of days ago, in hopes of flying the 787-9 and A350-1000. Instead I’m now scheduled to fly two segments on the A350-900, both with the old configuration.
I’ve known this is a common issue, I’m just not sure I understand why this is such a common problem with the airline, when virtually every other airline on earth doesn’t take this approach.
Can anyone provide any insights as to why Ethiopian Airlines so frequently has plane swaps? Is the airline ahead of its peers with its strategy, or just a mess?
At the end of the day, it's Africa. Ethiopia itself is a total disaster. No way is this because of increased efficiency.
You clearly have a huge misconception of the operations of Ethiopian Airlines, please do your research before posting such bias, stereotypical comments
Turkish Airlines is worst then Ethiopian in plane swapping
Maybe not on the flights to the US market you’re used too but on Middle East flights I already booked twice the 787 and ended up in a A330 with angle seat business class
I wont complain, 2 of our connecting flights(same cities, both directions) went from the 738 to the 777, saved us $66 each flight as we purchased the extra leg room seats for the 738 that arent needed when its a 777 or 787
Btw great service and it was our 1st but wont be our last time flying ET
So you knew of the extremely high probability of aircraft swaps beforehand. And it happened. And you passive-aggressively vent here. As much as you try to hedge and couch to make yourself sound 'reasonable, you still come across as rather churlish. Even a tad childish, actually.
I don't see why. If I pay for Mercedes-Benz, I don't want Volkswagen.
Does Ethiopian not have a modern revenue management system that can forecast their demand accurately, even if it's last minute? This seems like a terrible waste of resources and equipment.
Thai intra-Asia must be the second worst
Having flown Ethiopian business class between the US and sub-Saharan Africa a number of times I find less swaps on the US routes. But usually that means I know I’m going to get an angle lie flat out of Chicago most days. :(
At least with the a359, you know it’s truly lie flat which ever variation it is. Do you know if you have the 2-2-2 or the 1-2-1 variation?
I recently booked ADD-JNB red eye on Ethiopian. A few days before the flight, the plane was swapped from 787 to 737 Max. Imagine how happy I was…
And the Runner Up Champion of last minute airplane swaps: Turkish Airlines
On TK, you also get delays, missed connections, grumpy, unskilled IST staff, and a hot, overcrowded IST Lounge.
While not as charming as the initial (smaller) lounge at the original IST airport fifteen years ago, the current lounges are still among the better international lounges with sufficient space.
And rebookings whereby you arrive in Istanbul after you rescheduled flight departs. Garbage airline.
And stinky passengers.
The 359 and 35K have the same pilot rating so no change for the pilots. There presumably needs more FAs on the 35K. Otherwise, operationally much less impact than going from an A350 to a B787 or 777
I’ve flown ET about 20 times in my life and I’d say there was an aircraft swap about 70-80% of the time (sometimes to my advantage).
at least you get a decent seat. I was once booked with them to Athens and initially the flight was supposed to be operated by a 787. A couple of days before departure we got a 737 max! and business class on a 737 max is crap
I’m actually flying ET today and they swapped out the A359 for the A35K.
8 people in business - pretty crazy from JRO to ADD.
JRO today and ZNZ tomorrow are part of their PR media tour for the new aircraft so no real surprise about that "swap".
Two reasons why they would do it:
1. Maintenance is unable to predictably provide services so a/c are not available as expected.
2. Shallow inventory such that even if maint. was not an issue having the "exact a/c" would cost more than the revenue it's worth.
For a supposed travel expert to buy ANYTHING from Ethiopian and expect ANYTHING... well... um... you got SOMETHING -- what your ticket says -- carriage from point...
Two reasons why they would do it:
1. Maintenance is unable to predictably provide services so a/c are not available as expected.
2. Shallow inventory such that even if maint. was not an issue having the "exact a/c" would cost more than the revenue it's worth.
For a supposed travel expert to buy ANYTHING from Ethiopian and expect ANYTHING... well... um... you got SOMETHING -- what your ticket says -- carriage from point A to B. If it said anything about equipment and a/c type please share. Otherwise, the hot air has cooled.
The answer to this is actually #1, they really are that good at matching capacity and demand. Especially because most African markets are very late booking (over half their sales are within 7 days of departure), they monitor this constantly and have a team dedicated to optimising the fleet allocation right until departure time.
It is not complex at all from the crewing perspective. There are basically only 3 pilot pools for international routes -...
The answer to this is actually #1, they really are that good at matching capacity and demand. Especially because most African markets are very late booking (over half their sales are within 7 days of departure), they monitor this constantly and have a team dedicated to optimising the fleet allocation right until departure time.
It is not complex at all from the crewing perspective. There are basically only 3 pilot pools for international routes - 737, 777/787 and Airbus. At layover destinations, you won't get swaps at last minute across these pools as the crew at the other end are already in place, but anything goes within them. So 737 Max could become 737-700 or 737-800, 787-9 could become 787-8, 777-200LR or 777-300ER and A350-900 could become A350-1000. And on shorter turnaround flights where there is no crew layover, literally anything goes - I've even had a Dash8 show up for an EBB-ADD redeye once! And yes, airport constraints are an issue - they won't schedule a widebody into an airport which can't handle them obviously. But they do know which fleet can fly where and they match that up.
Finally, just because OLCI has opened with a specific seat map doesn't mean that there won't be another aircraft swap before departure. The default template for the A350-900 is the Collins seat map, while the final choice of specific airframe won't be made until a few hours before departure.
"Half of sales within 7 days of departure"
I interpret that to be half of the revenue rather than half of the seats.
Given seat prices go up towards departure that number is probably not so small for other airlines too - it would be fascinating to know the proportions.
May be a shcok to most readers, but to those who buy their wine in advance the fact that someting like 50% of...
"Half of sales within 7 days of departure"
I interpret that to be half of the revenue rather than half of the seats.
Given seat prices go up towards departure that number is probably not so small for other airlines too - it would be fascinating to know the proportions.
May be a shcok to most readers, but to those who buy their wine in advance the fact that someting like 50% of all wine is bought from shops within 2 hours of being opened is similar.
Let's say that 50% of revenue is 20% of seats.
Some significant proportion are government ministers on business.
I'll guess that those attending funerals (particularly from other countries to parental home) is another significant proportion.
Other segments?
@Albert - No, I mean half of sales by volume. Approx. 60-70% by revenue.
Ethiopian airlines is a mess, unethical airline, been traveling it for over a decade, no choice, I hate every bit of this airline. Their customer service is a circus operated by clowns.
Well it has happened to me on every HKG BKK 5th freedom flight I flew with them. I always get the 2-2-2 config but the swaps has been beneficial majority of the time for me as I ended up on the new Super Diamond 1-2-1 seats.
Only in a single instance I ended up on the Diamond 2-2-2 seats.
But I really wonder how airports cope with the last minute swaps from say a B737 to a B77W. Must be a headache for airport accountants as ofcourse the landing fees differ from plane sizes & aircraft types.
QR is a competitive number 2 on the list of notorious plane swappers with the various configurations between the B787 and A350
Q-Suites.
Super frustrating. The only silver lining is it work both ways—I had an NBO-ADD flight that was a 737 when I booked but 787 when it flew.
Because it's a terrible airline??
Its Africa, things are just the way they are
Thai used to be notorious for last-minute swaps. I believe it was called "being TG'd". It only happened to us once, when we boarded in Bangkok to find the purple velour 2X2 seating in first instead of the updated cabin. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great either. I drank my weight in Dom and luxury cognac on that flight.
I had it happen to me as well on BLR-BKK last year, A359 was downgraded to B772 (angle-flat 2-2-2) a few days in advance.
Plane swaps would matter less if airlines had more consistent products or at least a minimum standard, where it doesn't fall off so massively.
Very uncool to go from QSuites to a 2-2-2 config. Same situation here w/ Ethiopian.
It wouldn’t be so obnoxious if they didn’t specifically advertise the QSuite during the booking process, but yes extremely annoyed to have specifically been sold a ticket that has the QSuite clearly labelled for the flight and get swapped into something else.
There needs to be some kind of consumer protection for this kinda thing.
At least Qatar offers you the option to change for free if you get equipment swapped away from Q-suites, and will notify you, too. (At least, they did for me, and then swapped back to Q-suites)
At least Qatar offers you the option to change for free if you get equipment swapped away from Q-suites, and will notify you, too. (At least, they did for me, and then swapped back to Q-suites)
Ethiopia's latest route is Addis Ababa -Dhaka, launched just a few days ago. The route was supposed to be operated 5x weekly with B787. Inauguration flight was done with a 787 but since then, all the scheduled flights on ADD-DAC-ADD route has been operated with a 737 max
Maybe there is not enough traffic to fill a 787.