Travellers reach Ethiopia from 6 African airports on 6 catalogued routes, flown by Ethiopian Airlines, South African Airways, Kenya Airways. This corridor sits in the intra-Africa + Gulf hub transit corridor. The tables below list every catalogued route, the carriers on it, and — where our cache has data — the lowest USD fare seen; all fares are quoted in USD, with on-the-ground spending in ETB.
Routes to Ethiopia
6 catalogued corridors reach Ethiopia from 6 African airports, flown by 3 carriers and totalling about 98 weekly departures, with block times from 2.0 h to 5.5 h. 0 of them run fewer than seven times a week, the line where a cancellation starts costing days rather than hours.
| Route | Carriers | Freq/wk | Block (h) | Market low (USD) | Guide |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Johannesburg (JNB) → Addis Ababa (ADD) | ET, SA | ~21 | ~5.5 | $591 | guide |
| Nairobi (NBO) → Addis Ababa (ADD) | ET, KQ | ~28 | ~2.0 | $411 | guide |
| Dar es Salaam (DAR) → Addis Ababa (ADD) | ET | ~14 | ~2.5 | — | guide |
| Entebbe (EBB) → Addis Ababa (ADD) | ET | ~14 | ~2.5 | $293 | guide |
| Kigali (KGL) → Addis Ababa (ADD) | ET | ~14 | ~2.5 | — | guide |
| Harare (HRE) → Addis Ababa (ADD) | ET | ~7 | ~3.5 | $494 | guide |
Every corridor here runs at least daily on our estimates, which makes Ethiopia unusually forgiving of disruption by African standards: a cancelled flight is normally a same-day or next-morning wait rather than a lost week. That resilience is worth more than a small fare saving on any trip with a fixed commitment at the far end.
Weekly frequency here is our catalogue’s estimate for each corridor as a whole rather than a published timetable for one airline, and it moves with the seasonal schedule change. Block times are scheduled gate-to-gate for the nonstop sector, so a much longer duration on a booking screen means a connection. Both figures are our own estimates, last revised 2026-05-19.
Airlines flying to Ethiopia
3 carriers fly the corridors into Ethiopia covered here; for the 3 we hold details on, checked-baggage baselines are 23 kg, and 3 of them belong to a global alliance. Baselines are economy figures and depend on the fare family you buy.
Carriers operating the catalogued routes to Ethiopia, with alliance, baggage baseline and any diaspora or pilgrim baggage uplift:
| Airline | Alliance | Checked baggage | Diaspora uplift | Hajj/Umrah charter |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ethiopian Airlines (ET) | Star Alliance | 23 kg | +5 kg | Yes |
| South African Airways (SA) | Star Alliance | 23 kg | +5 kg | No |
| Kenya Airways (KQ) | SkyTeam | 23 kg | +5 kg | No |
Diaspora and migrant-worker baggage uplift recorded against these carriers: Ethiopian Airlines +5 kg, Kenya Airways +5 kg and South African Airways +5 kg. Three exclusions normally apply to promotions of this kind: they attach to nominated corridors rather than the whole network, they are rarely honoured on another airline’s codeshare or interline segment, and the deepest-discount fare buckets are usually carved out. Confirm against your own booking class in writing.
Visa & entry — Ethiopia
This page does not state an entry requirement for Ethiopia, because the rule depends on your passport. Check Ethiopia’s own immigration or foreign-ministry guidance for your nationality before booking — it is the only authority worth acting on.
Visa requirements for Ethiopia vary by passport. Check Ethiopia’s official immigration or foreign-ministry guidance for your nationality before booking. On-the-ground currency: ETB.
Read any entry rule against your own passport. The row above names the nationalities it covers; an ECOWAS, EAC, Maghreb or Horn passport not named there can face a different fee, a different processing route, or no eligibility at all for the same destination.
The trap on a Ethiopia itinerary is usually the transit rather than the destination. A connection can place you airside in a third country that requires a transit visa for your nationality even when you never leave the terminal, and the airline checks documentation for the entire itinerary at the origin gate. Check every country your ticket touches, against your own passport.
When to book
Book 4-8 weeks ahead. Treat that window as general guidance for travel into Ethiopia rather than a rule for a single pairing; on thin corridors seat availability binds before price does.
Book 4-8 weeks ahead. Fares rise around the December holidays; mid-week departures are usually the cheapest. See each per-route guide for month-by-month fare seasonality.
Booking windows are about competition for seats, not a hidden cheapest day. On a corridor with several daily rotations there is inventory left to release, and a late booking sometimes still finds a workable bucket; on a thin corridor into Ethiopia the cheap buckets are gone months out and no amount of searching brings them back. Check the frequency column before deciding how long to wait.
There are two different problems here and they have opposite answers. With flexible dates, scan a whole month — the seasonal spread in our own fare log is wider than any difference between one gate and another. With dates locked by a pilgrimage, a school term or a job start, searching is wasted effort and buying early is the only lever left.
Cached fares to Ethiopia
$293 is the lowest USD quote our cache holds on any corridor into Ethiopia — on EBB-ADD — out of 4 priced corridors of the 6 catalogued. Each is one cached observation on its own corridor, in economy, not a low across the cache.
Lowest USD fares in our weekly Travelpayouts cache on routes to Ethiopia (market lows across all carriers, each a dated observation; check live prices before booking):
| Corridor | Market low (USD) | Cheapest month seen |
|---|---|---|
| EBB-ADD | $293 | $294 in Aug 2026 |
| NBO-ADD | $411 | $358 in Jul 2026 |
| HRE-ADD | $494 | $517 in Jan 2027 |
| JNB-ADD | $591 | $394 in Jul 2026 |
| Corridor | Readings | Cached range (USD) | Cheapest week |
|---|---|---|---|
| DAR-ADD | 4 | $402–$799 | 2026-W29 |
| JNB-ADD | 6 | $472–$663 | 2026-W27 |
| KGL-ADD | 3 | $520–$796 | 2026-W20 |
| NBO-ADD | 4 | $381–$565 | 2026-W23 |
Those rows come from our weekly fare log, which samples the cheapest published quote once a week across 161 corridors. Each reading is a single snapshot rather than an average of everything sold that week, so a one-week dip can be one small fare bucket. What the range does establish is a defensible floor: a live quote far above the top of the range on a Ethiopia corridor is worth a second search on flexible dates.
Departure airports for Ethiopia
6 African airports have a catalogued corridor to Ethiopia on this site: Dar es Salaam (DAR), Entebbe (EBB), Harare (HRE), Johannesburg (JNB), Kigali (KGL) and Nairobi (NBO). Fares from every one of them are quoted in USD so the origins stay comparable.
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Dar es Salaam airport (DAR) — Julius Nyerere International, Tanzania: 11 catalogued departure corridors and 2 arrival corridors.
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Entebbe airport (EBB) — Entebbe International, Uganda: 6 catalogued departure corridors and 2 arrival corridors.
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Harare airport (HRE) — Robert Mugabe International, Zimbabwe: 6 catalogued departure corridors and 1 arrival corridor.
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Johannesburg airport (JNB) — O.R. Tambo International, South Africa: 39 catalogued departure corridors and 6 arrival corridors.
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Kigali airport (KGL) — Kigali International, Rwanda: 8 catalogued departure corridors and 3 arrival corridors.
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Nairobi airport (NBO) — Jomo Kenyatta International, Kenya: 19 catalogued departure corridors and 6 arrival corridors.
FAQ
Do I need a visa for Ethiopia? Visa requirements depend on your passport. Check the destination’s official immigration or foreign-ministry guidance for your nationality before booking.
What currency is used in Ethiopia? Ethiopia uses ETB. Plan on-the-ground spending in ETB and compare airfares in USD.
How many routes go to Ethiopia from Africa? Our catalogue lists 6 routes to Ethiopia from 6 African airports — see the table above.
When are flights to Ethiopia cheapest? Book 4-8 weeks ahead. Fares rise around the December holidays; mid-week departures are usually the cheapest.
Which airlines fly to Ethiopia? Carriers on routes to Ethiopia include Ethiopian Airlines, South African Airways, Kenya Airways. See the per-route airlines in the table above.
How cheap are flights to Ethiopia? The lowest cached fare to Ethiopia in our weekly snapshot was about $293 on EBB-ADD — a dated observation, not a current price. Fares move with season; the route guides show each fare with the date it was found.
Search live fares
6 catalogued corridors into Ethiopia means a live search will return several routings for the same dates; the lowest cached floor across them in our weekly snapshot was $293 — a dated observation, not a current price. Dates move the price more than any other variable. Fares across all 6 of those corridors are quoted in USD on this site so origins in different African markets stay comparable on one page.
Search flights to Ethiopia on Aviasales ->
Three checks make results comparable. Fix passenger count and cabin before comparing, because a per-passenger fare and a total look identical on a results page. Read the elapsed time next to the price — a one-stop routing into Ethiopia and a nonstop are different products. And check whether the fare includes the checked bag you will actually carry.
Scan the calendar, not the vendors. Between departure months our weekly log shows movement on these corridors well beyond anything that separates one booking gate from another, so a single flexible-date search outperforms repeated fixed-date ones. When the dates are fixed, earlier purchase is the only remaining lever.