Dublin Airport New Routes 2016

New York is in line to become Ethiopian’s fourth destination in North America in Jun-2016, joining Toronto, Washington Dulles and recently launched Los Angeles. Ethiopian is also looking at Chicago and Houston, which could be launched in 2017

Ethiopian could expand Dublin hub as expansion in US continues

Ethiopian has not yet decided if it will serve its three planned new US destinations non-stop eastbound or with a stopover in both directions, which would enable it to take advantage of fifth freedom traffic. “We are now measuring the size of the traffic whether it makes sense to fly direct from or need to stop in Europe,” Mr GebreMariam said. “If the market is not big enough to begin with then we can stop both ways in Dublin.”

The new Addis Ababa-Dublin-Los Angeles flight has performed well since it was launched in Jun-2015, giving Ethiopian confidence it can succeed in other Dublin-US markets. Ethiopian achieved an average load factor on the Addis Ababa-Dublin-Los Angeles route of 75% to 80% in the summer 2015 season with a significant number of passengers embarking or disembarking in Dublin.

There are now three Ethiopian departures from Dublin within a span of less than 30m on some mornings
Ethiopian at the same time also changed the westbound stop of its Toronto and Washington flights to Dublin. There are now three Ethiopian departures from Dublin within a span of less than 30m on some mornings, a time Dublin Airport affectionately refers to as Ethiopian hour. “Dublin is becoming a very popular hub for us,” Mr GebreMariam said.

Dublin is keen for Ethiopian to further expand the hub with stopovers in both directions for its future US routes. Toronto and Washington are purely technical stops – although still good business for Dublin – and are unlikely to have eastbound stops in future as they are large enough local markets to support non-stops.

Dublin-New York would represent a different and perhaps more challenging market than Dublin-Los Angeles, which is not served non-stop by any other carrier. Aer Lingus, American, Delta and United all serve the Dublin-New York market and Ethiopian will likely not be able to partner with United on the route due to restrictions with United’s trans-Atlantic joint venture with the Lufthansa Group and Air Canada. But Dublin-New York is a much bigger local market and Ethiopian will have one year of building its brand in the Irish market by the time it launches New York.

Dublin-Chicago is served by American and Aer Lingus while Dublin-Houston currently does not have any non-stop service.