Today I’m reviewing Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 777-200LR Economy on a short flight from Stockholm to Oslo. They operate this short hop as part of a larger return from Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. And for reasons I’ll discuss, it wasn’t very good.
This review doesn’t really give a full idea of what Ethiopian Airlines is like on long haul flights. But it does give you a chance to see what they offer. And considering a normal flight between Stockholm and Oslo would be in a SAS A320 or Norwegian 737, I think this is definitely the most interesting option. You can watch my Youtube video below for a full rundown:
Stockholm Airport
My main impression of Stockholm Airport is that it is incredibly long. Walking anywhere here just seems to take forever. It’s a relatively big airport with 4 terminals, serving almost 30 million passengers in 2017. My flight was from Terminal 5, which is the largest terminal and the amount of walking is excessive. I’ve been to much bigger airports that don’t require you to walk for 15+ minutes. So honestly I think this place is just badly designed. Check-in is at one end of the building, then security is way at the other end, then my gate was back all the way in the opposite direction.
The airport also feels quite dated, having been built originally in 1976. They are currently upgrading the main departure area to be much more modern and appealing (see below picture). But as of November 2023 when I visited it hadn’t finished yet and was still a building site. Currently, reaching your gate at this airport just feels like walking down endless corridors.
So overall, I don’t think Stockholm Airport is very good. Both in terms of design and amenities with a definite lack of shops, restaurants and lounges. Review websites also agree, with Skytrax only giving them 3 Stars. For comparison most major European airports like London Heathrow, Oslo, Paris CDG and Frankfurt get 4 Stars. And some lucky airports like Munich, Rome and Istanbul were even awarded 5 stars.
Journey and Ticket Details
Today’s flight was a very quick 47 minute hop from Stockholm Arlanda Terminal 5 to Oslo Gardermoen Airport. The flight was delayed by just over half an hour, which was a minor inconvenience, but arrival was only 15 min late and I had a long 3 hour layover coming up so was in no rush.
As I mentioned earlier, this flight (no. ET 714) operates as a 3 part trip from Addis Ababa to Stockholm to Oslo and back. Ethiopian seem to do this on a lot of routes in Europe to serve destinations that probably don’t have enough demand for a direct flight. For example, they also fly from Addis Ababa to Manchester via Geneva.
Now the main reason you might consider flying Ethiopian on this route over Norwegian or SAS is that it’s really cheap. A return flight can be had for as little as £55 whilst I saw one way flights for under £30. The flight times aren’t exactly convenient, with this one leaving at 07:40am. But sometimes sacrifices have to be made for a cheap flight.
Whilst the ticket was cheap though, the extras were not. For some bizarre reason extra bags were priced at SEK 1,915 / £140 per bag per person. Granted on my economy fare 2 free bags were already included. But £140 per bag for extras just seems excessive.
Also worth noting that originally I booked this flight on a Boeing 787-9, which is a considerably newer aircraft. A week or so before the flight though they changed it to the Boeing 777-200LR. Equipment changes are common, and I actually kept my original seat number. But I was mildly excited about trying their 787, so it was a bit disappointing.
Finally, whilst Economy is dirt cheap, Business Class in incredibly expensive. The cheapest business fare I found was SEK 7,441 / £570 one way. They don’t even serve a meal on this short leg, so I’ve no idea who would pay for that.
The Plane and Seat
Ethiopian Airlines use a Boeing 777-200LR on this route. Our specific aircraft was 12.9 years old at the time of flying with callsign ET-ANO. It has 28 lay flat Business Class seats and 287 Economy seats in a 3-3-3 layout making it an extremely Economy-heavy plane. Considering most Boeing 777s these days have 3-4-3 seating in Economy I appreciate that Ethiopian have crammed 1 less seat per row in.
The Ethiopian Airlines Economy Seat comes in a divisive bright green colour. Some people like it, I personally think it looks a bit sickly. It also makes stains very obvious, of which there were many accumulated over the years this plane has been in service. So I would suggest they use darker coloured seats in the future, or actually make an effort to clean stains out of the seat.
Comfort-wise though the seat is pretty good. Legroom and width are average at 32″ of pitch and 17″ of width. But the seat is very well cushioned with a comfy adjustable headrest. It also comes with a pillow and blanket (both of which had already been used on my seat and not cleared away). The pillow is big, but also probably one of the thinnest pillows I’ve seen on an airline, so I doubt it’s very comfy.
There’s an average IFE system which is understandably dated due to the plane being 13 years old. Unfortunately my touchscreen was broken so I couldn’t explore what they had to offer. And there were no headphones anyway, I assume the previous passenger had used and thrown them away as I found the empty plastic wrapper. Besides that there is a cup holder which is always handy if you have a drink but don’t want to put the tray table down.
Everything Else
There’s really nothing else to talk about in this flight. It was very short with zero service from the cabin crew throughout. In fact I think the only time they left the galley was before landing to check everybody’s seatbelt was fastened.
We arrived right Oslo Airport slightly later at one of the international gates. I was connecting here for a flight with SAS back to London (which I’ll be reviewing soon). So I headed through the transfer area which was very simple. Oslo Airport is also a great airport, one of the best in the world if you ask me. But I’ll cover that in my upcoming SAS review too…
Final Thoughts
Overall, Ethiopian Airlines Economy in their Boeing 777-200LR would be quite good, if it was freshly cleaned. But the fact that they don’t clean the cabin at all during the 1+ hour stop in Stockholm means any passenger only flying Stockholm to Oslo will get a dirty seat. Someone had been sitting in my seat on the prior leg and their crumbs, plus used pillow and blanket were littered all over.
Otherwise the seat is quite comfy, though also quite dirty. And Ethiopian are one of the few airlines in the world to configure their Boeing 777s with 9 seats wide instead of the typical 10. So props to them for that. This flight is also incredibly cheap, basically the cheapest way to get from Stockholm to Oslo.
More from me…
Please feel free to check out other related posts I’ve written:
- Malaysia Airlines Economy A350-900 – Great food on a 13 hour flight
- No1 Lounge at London Gatwick South – Surprisingly good
- Singapore Airlines Economy from London to Singapore – As Good as People Say?
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