Ethiopian announces IAH via Lome, cuts LAX
#17
Join Date: Feb 2005
Programs: AA, FB, UA
Posts: 111
Interesting point, I missed that when I read the linked article. The only other article I could see written on it says that ET hasn't decided yet which transit airport they'll use. Honestly I think they'd be crazy not to use LFW considering this flight is likely to attract quite a few oil & gas business travelers. All of LFW, ACC, DKR, and ABJ have TWOV for US passport holders (unsure of other passports, but assume it's reasonably universal), but have hard that LFW is pretty seamless for INT-INT transfer and ABJ is a complete mess. This aside, seemingly KP (Asky) is miles above HF (Air Air Côte d'Ivoire) in terms of reliability, operating somewhat ontime, and actually delivering you and your luggage to the right destination. I'm not aware of any decent regional connections from ACC and DKR.
Not sure, does ET have 5th Freedom rights to/from Nigeria? I certainly wouldn't prefer to connect in LOS over LFW but it's the only other logical point with W3, still I believe KP is quite a bit better. I can see Nigeria only from the standpoint that it's by and far the largest oil market in Africa, but for people going to the other oil & gas countries, it's certainly not ideal.
Then I could be completely off base and ET isn't thinking about these customers at all, instead looking only at the West African expat population, could be that the petroleum folks are going to continue connecting in Europe regardless, though that industry did support the SonAir flight to LAD for almost 2 decades.
Not sure, does ET have 5th Freedom rights to/from Nigeria? I certainly wouldn't prefer to connect in LOS over LFW but it's the only other logical point with W3, still I believe KP is quite a bit better. I can see Nigeria only from the standpoint that it's by and far the largest oil market in Africa, but for people going to the other oil & gas countries, it's certainly not ideal.
Then I could be completely off base and ET isn't thinking about these customers at all, instead looking only at the West African expat population, could be that the petroleum folks are going to continue connecting in Europe regardless, though that industry did support the SonAir flight to LAD for almost 2 decades.
Am surprised at these views on Abidjan/hf vs Lomé/kp. HF seems much more reliable (my colleagues actively prefer them to kp) and Abidjan
is definitely a nicer airport, and one that works reasonably well for connections.
#18
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: TX
Programs: UA 1K, Million Miler, BA
Posts: 194
You are correct, the LFW mention was via a link to another aviation site my cousin sent me but is not in any of the various press articles, they just note "West Africa". My apologies for missing that that was speculation. Various sources just note it is thrice weekly.
#20
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: ORD
Programs: AA, UA, GE
Posts: 5,123
#21
Join Date: Nov 2008
Programs: Flying Blue, Diamond Club
Posts: 782
- On Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday, the flight will be operated as Lome-Lagos-Libreville-Johannesburg.
- On Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays, the route will be operated as Lomé-Lagos-Douala -Johannesburg.
https://newsaero.info/airlines/asky-...urg-?true=1694
Last edited by flying_blue_white_red; Apr 7, 2019 at 12:21 pm Reason: broken link
#24
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Aurora, CO
Programs: Statusless and proud
Posts: 7,582
Just a heads up on this flight. I booked it with UA miles back in August and it was scheduled to fly out at 21:30. It has now been switched to 8:30, causing a misconnect on our flights from SEZ. I was able to find saver space ADD-LHR and then United was nice enough to open up space on LHR-DEN-IAH. Interestingly enough, however, on UA's website, it still had the old departure time so I'm glad I was on the ET website today trying to get seats when I noticed it.
Chris
Chris