Ethiopian Airlines to add Poland as its next European destination

Starting from the 16 of June, Ethiopian Airlines will be operating from their base in Adidas Ababa (ADD, Ethiopia) to Warsaw (WAW, Poland) Flights will be operating four times weekly using a Boeing 737 Max 8, with a one hour stopover in Athens (ATH, Greece) either direction. Ethiopian Airlines has not been granted 5th freedom rights, meaning passengers won’t be able to book flights from Athen to Warsaw and vice versa.

The B737 Max 8 has an advertised range of 6 570km, and the distance between ADD and WAW is 5 060km as the crow flies meaning the route could possibly be operated non stop using the narrowbody B737 Max 8. A number of reasons could be stopping this from from being a direct flight such as ADD being a hot and high airport that could result in load restrictions when flying from ADD, but still the return flight should be able to fly back without a stopover. Another possible reason could be that Ethiopian Airlines simply does not expect a lot of demand and might even switch to a widebody when demand increases, which I surely hope is the case.