Group chief executive officer Mesfin Tasew told local press this week that it will take around two years to secure the wide-body aircraft needed to fly the ultra long-haul route to Australia’s busy east coast hubs.
“We will most likely start flying to Australia in 2028 – by renting or purchasing – as a larger batch of aircraft will arrive the year after that,” Tasew said.
Ethiopian Airlines has long viewed Australia as the final missing piece in its growing long-haul network, having already connected services to every other habitable continent.
Guided by previous updates on LinkedIn posted by ET’s former regional manager APAC Region, Telila Deressa Gutema, the carrier is looking to buy or lease Airbus A350s or Boeing 787s to make the Aussie route a reality.
Melbourne was confirmed as a target airport by our sister publication Travel Daily last year, with a spokesperson for the hub confirming that it was in talks with ET about slots.
In Tasew’s latest announcement, he confirmed two Aussie cities have been shortlisted for expansion, but did not disclose any further details.
Plans for an Aussie debut were made even firmer last year when the airline appointed a debut PR agency to represent it in the local market.
The latest development coincided with ET posting A$6.17 billion in revenue for the first half of FY26, marking a healthy 14% year-on-year increase.
The airline transported 10.64 million domestic and international passengers over the six-months period.
