Flight: ET639
Ethiopian Airlines
Origin: Singapore 02:00
Destination: Addis Ababa 05:50
Plane: Boeing 787-8
Duration: 8h 50 min

Ethiopian Airlines is a Star Alliance member, having joined in December 2011. The company slogan is ‘The New Spirit of Africa.’ Ethiopian’s hub and headquarters are at Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, from where it serves a network of 125 passenger destinations—20 of them domestic—and 44 freighter destinations. The airline has secondary hubs in Togo and Malawi. Ethiopian is Africa’s largest airline in terms of passengers carried, destinations served, fleet size, and revenue. Ethiopian is also the world’s fourth-largest airline by the number of countries served.

Check-in for my flight ET639 was brisk. There was no one at the airport counter when I arrived at 11.30pm. There was a separate queue for Star Alliance Gold members. There were people flying to Dubai and other destinations, whereas my final destination is Windhoek.

I had redeemed my Lifemiles for this flight in Business class, with a routing from Singapore to Addis Ababa to Windhoek. I thought I would have a chance to experience Krisflyer Gold Lounge, but they gave me a written ticket for SATS lounge instead.

Flight to Addis Ababa is the last flight of the night, before the next morning flight to KUL begins. Estimated boarding time is 01:15.

You can try out the signature Laksa, which you have to cook on your own. This gives visitors to the lounge an opportunity to try local food. I didn’t try it as I already had dinner at home, so I took the chance to have a few drinks at the lounge.

Seated comfortably in seat 3L. The row behind me had a curtain, which was partitioned for the pilot to rest. Screen IFE was big enough and it was also touch screen.

A bottle of mineral water was given and a red amenities bag was given. I already had the yellow one (4 of them from the previous trip), so it was nice to have a different colour. Ethiopian hasn’t updated their business class amenities pouch since 2019.

The plane took off around 2.30pm. There was a supper service, but I skipped that as I wanted to sleep. I made my own bed and went to sleep. Here, they do not provide pyjamas for you. The lady next to me seems to be Ethiopian and she also went to sleep after having the supper.

About 2 hours before landing into Bole airport, we were served breakfast. While the presentation is nice, but the food was quite terrible. You can’t expect much from the pancakes which were microwaved, they were hard and chewy. The berries compote was too sweet and the pain au chocolate was lacklustre.

I finished the cereal and the bowl of fruits, and also had a cup of tea.

We landed at 05:40 Ethiopian time and taxied to the gate. It was a pleasant flight and I passed through security clearer to get to the transit area. Being able to lie flat and have a good sleep of about 5-6 hours on the plane was definitely rewarding. I arrived refreshed in ADD airport and ready to take the next flight, which is shorter at around 5 hours, to Windhoek. I would definitely fly with ET again, even though they are a 4-star airline only.