Having disembarked from the bus there was a security check that took just a few minutes and there I was airside in departures. I was greeted by 2016, which must be the Ethiopian New Year. Having come from BKK where it is 2566 it was my first experience of time travel.


The departure area was spacious with the normal variety of food and drink outlets but few, if any, high-end shops. I took a snap of the departures board to get an idea of the volume of flights and destinations.


At first I looked at the time in the top left and the bottom right and was awed at the number of flights operating. However, all four panels are the same so it is not quite that busy! Most of the destinations shown are African so they rightly use the logo "The New Spirit of Africa", but if you peruse Flight Radar then you will see an impressive range of world wide destinations.

There is a dedicated bus gate for J passengers:


This is one up on travelling British Airways in First where you pile onto a crowded bus with everyone else if your flight uses a remote stand! There was a very short queue for the lounge and I was soon inside.


The lounge is impressive with a number of different spaces and a good range of food.






Most of these photographs were taken towards the end of my stay as when I arrived, about 07.00, it was very crowded and you had to hunt for a seat. As the morning flights departed there were fewer people and plenty of seating. There were two separate areas, one for resting:


The other side of the room had similar furniture but some of the beds were occupied so I could not get a full view. There was also a cinema room


Seems to be a programme about seals showing, not a popular film it would appear! There was also a feature bar that looked as if it was used for promotions:


The fridge has Castel Winery on it so maybe at certain times you can taste their wines? I like those patterned stools.
In the centre of the main lounge area there is a rubber tree (?) beneath a sky light with a modern chandelier as a central feature.


And now the food; first cold items:





And the hot:


There were ten different hot dishes, there are another five domes covering food on the other side of the serving unit. I did not take pictures but there was a very good range although mostly spicy looking stew type dishes. If you are unfamiliar with it, the round brown rolls are a type of bread a bit like a fine pancake and are used to pick up the food from your plate rather like a chapati. More about this in the next report, the flight to London.

An now the serious stuff!


I asked for champagne and got this, a cremant. But that is the case in most of the world which, despite the heroic efforts of the French, call any sparkling wine champagne! It was a nice French wine and the pour was very generous. You get drinks from the bar:


It is not self pour but a bar tender serves you. I think beer is available in fridges dotted around the food area but I am not sure. Although there is a pile of plastic cups on the bar everything seemed to be served in a glass. Perhaps they are for the really busy time in the evening when I expect more people will drink.

There are also showers. I had to wait about 20 minutes and hand in my boarding pass. When I went back the attendant told me to wait in the lounge just outside the shower area and she fetched me about five minutes later. The shower cubicles are rather small with little space (one hook and the sink surround) to put things like the clothes you get out of. My shower never got hot but although initially this seemed a bad thing, a cool shower is refreshing and some showers rooms are so hot and humid you emerge sticking to your shirt and need to dry off by evaporation for twenty minutes! There is a toilet in each cubicle and you get a soap and a small tube of shampoo/body wash. No comb or toothbrush; maybe you can ask for one? I don't think there was a hair dryer but as I don't use them I may have just not noticed, or perhaps they are only in the woman's showers cubicles?

I liked this lounge a lot! For a J lounge there was a good range of food and a variety of seating. The decor with that bright pattern was nice although not applied across the whole lounge. The window on Addis Ababa was a nice feature. It does get very crowded though, but when passengers leave it quietens down it is a pleasant way to spend time waiting. I left for my second flight, ADD to LHR. That will be Part 3, coming to this thread soon!