Ethiopian drops BLR-Addis Ababa fare by 35%
Ethiopian had announced direct flight between Bengaluru and Addis Ababa in July. I had written earlier that Ethiopian had set an unusually high price on this route- like INR 68-70k for a return ticket between Bengaluru and Addis Ababa- a 6 hour flight while tickets to even far away destinations in Europe and Japan were lot cheaper.
I guess Ethiopian mis-judged the market and was hoping people will pay a high premium for the convenience of a direct flight.
It looks like now some sense has prevailed. Probably not enough people booked on Ethiopia forcing airline to rethink. Fares on this route has now been slashed by about one third. A return ticket between Bengaluru and Addis Ababa now costs about 44-45k INR. I would have been happy if this drops further to 30-35k INR range but for that we have to wait and see.
Does this fare excite you? Are you looking to visit Ethiopia on this?
One more thing to be noted- earlier Ethiopian website used to show one stop via Mumbai on days of the week where direct flight was not scheduled. Now it shows N/A instead.
Also to be noted is that one stop flight to other destinations via Addis Ababa is even cheaper. Like it costs 23k to fly one way to ADD but if you can book connecting flight to Mahe, Seychelles, then you pay a lot lesser- at only 17k, which feels unfair but that is how aviation pricing works. If you have only cabin bag you can possibly book till Mahe and exit at ADD (A practice called Skipleg, which airlines hate- don't do this with a return ticket- entire ticket might be void by airline)
I guess Ethiopian mis-judged the market and was hoping people will pay a high premium for the convenience of a direct flight.
It looks like now some sense has prevailed. Probably not enough people booked on Ethiopia forcing airline to rethink. Fares on this route has now been slashed by about one third. A return ticket between Bengaluru and Addis Ababa now costs about 44-45k INR. I would have been happy if this drops further to 30-35k INR range but for that we have to wait and see.
One more thing to be noted- earlier Ethiopian website used to show one stop via Mumbai on days of the week where direct flight was not scheduled. Now it shows N/A instead.
Also to be noted is that one stop flight to other destinations via Addis Ababa is even cheaper. Like it costs 23k to fly one way to ADD but if you can book connecting flight to Mahe, Seychelles, then you pay a lot lesser- at only 17k, which feels unfair but that is how aviation pricing works. If you have only cabin bag you can possibly book till Mahe and exit at ADD (A practice called Skipleg, which airlines hate- don't do this with a return ticket- entire ticket might be void by airline)
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