Reaching Africa’s great cities, national parks and Indian Ocean gateways is becoming simpler, as Etihad Airways and Ethiopian Airlines roll out a far-reaching joint venture and codeshare that knits together two of the world’s fastest-growing aviation hubs.
A Strategic Partnership Linking Two Powerhouse Hubs
Etihad Airways and Ethiopian Airlines have sealed a landmark joint venture and codeshare agreement designed to transform how travelers move between Africa, the Middle East and key long-haul markets in Asia and Australia. Signed in Addis Ababa in March 2025, the tie-up brings together Abu Dhabi’s Zayed International Airport and Addis Ababa Bole International Airport, two rising global hubs serving fast-expanding networks in their respective regions.
Under the agreement, Ethiopian Airlines has launched direct flights between Addis Ababa and Abu Dhabi, with services beginning in mid-July 2025. Etihad followed with its own daily flights from Abu Dhabi to Addis Ababa in October 2025, marking the carrier’s formal return to the Ethiopian market and adding another African capital to its expanding route map.
The partnership is structured in phases. The first visible step for travelers was the activation of the codeshare in June 2025, allowing each airline to sell seats on selected routes operated by the other. Behind the scenes, the wider joint venture is intended to deepen cooperation beyond schedules and ticketing, with both sides exploring collaboration in areas such as cargo, training and loyalty programs.
For both airlines, the agreement is strategically timed. Etihad is in the middle of an ambitious network growth plan, adding new destinations and frequencies as Abu Dhabi positions itself as a global connecting hub. Ethiopian, Africa’s largest carrier by network, is pushing ahead with its Vision 2035 strategy, which seeks to grow its destination count to more than 200 and extend its footprint on every continent.
What the Codeshare Means for Everyday Travelers
For passengers, the most immediate change is practical rather than abstract. The activated codeshare allows travelers to book a single ticket that combines flights operated by Etihad and Ethiopian Airlines, check in once at the start of their journey and have bags tagged through to the final destination. This reduces the stress of navigating separate bookings and cuts the risk of missed connections caused by misaligned itineraries.
Under the agreement, Etihad customers can connect through Addis Ababa to more than 50 destinations across 30-plus African countries operated by Ethiopian Airlines. These include major commercial centers and tourism gateways such as Kigali, Lusaka, Harare, Victoria Falls and a wide spread of secondary cities that have historically been harder to reach on a single booking from the Gulf.
On the other side of the partnership, Ethiopian Airlines passengers gain a more direct path to Etihad’s network beyond Abu Dhabi. From the Emirati capital, travelers can link to destinations in Asia, Australia and the broader Middle East, including cities such as Sydney, Melbourne, Colombo, Krabi, Phuket, Phnom Penh and other fast-growing leisure and business markets.
Crucially for long-haul travelers, itineraries that once required two or three separately booked tickets and overnight stops can now be consolidated into a single journey. That simplification is expected to appeal not only to holidaymakers but also to business travelers and members of the African diaspora who frequently move between African capitals and major cities in the Gulf, India, Southeast Asia and Australasia.
New Nonstop Links Between Abu Dhabi and Addis Ababa
The backbone of the new partnership is the nonstop air bridge between Abu Dhabi and Addis Ababa, which until recently was served only via indirect routings. Ethiopian Airlines launched its own Addis Ababa to Abu Dhabi service from July 15, 2025, using widebody aircraft drawn from its modern fleet, including Boeing 777 and Airbus A350 types on selected rotations, depending on demand.
Etihad Airways followed with daily flights from Abu Dhabi to the Ethiopian capital beginning in October 2025, typically operated by aircraft from its narrowbody A320-family fleet on the initial schedule. Together, the two carriers provide at least double-daily capacity between the cities, creating more departure choices and smoothing connection times across their combined networks.
The new services plug directly into Ethiopian’s extensive African network, which now includes more than 160 destinations worldwide and over 50 points on the continent. For Etihad, Addis Ababa sits alongside existing African destinations such as Nairobi, Johannesburg and Casablanca, and precedes new North African routes to Tunis and Algiers as part of a broader push into the continent.
From a tourism standpoint, the direct flights also reposition Addis Ababa and Abu Dhabi as attractive stopover points. Travelers following the classic safari trail from East and Southern Africa to Asia or Australia can now break their journey to explore cultural and culinary highlights in both cities without adding complex detours to their itineraries.
Opening Up Africa’s Safari, Culture and Coastlines
The expanded cooperation is particularly significant for leisure travelers looking to combine African destinations with trips to Asia or the Middle East. Ethiopian’s network spans a broad arc of the continent, from East African safari gateways such as Kilimanjaro and Entebbe to Southern African highlights including Victoria Falls and Harare, and island destinations in the Indian Ocean.
By linking that network with Etihad’s hub in Abu Dhabi, the joint venture effectively shortens the travel distance between these African hotspots and cities such as Sydney, Osaka, Kuala Lumpur or Hanoi. For example, a traveler starting in Melbourne can fly via Abu Dhabi into Addis Ababa and connect onward to regional African cities on a single ticket, with their baggage handled throughout.
The arrangement is expected to be especially attractive to travelers from Asia and Australasia who want to visit multiple African countries in a single trip. Addis Ababa’s role as a central African hub means that itineraries incorporating, for instance, Rwanda’s gorilla-tracking parks, Tanzania’s Serengeti and Zambia’s Zambezi Valley can be built around efficient one-stop connections through the Ethiopian capital.
Abu Dhabi’s own tourism strategy stands to benefit as well. With more African travelers funneled through Etihad’s base, the Emirati capital gains additional stopover traffic for its museums, beaches, theme parks and desert experiences. In turn, increased visitor flows into Africa are likely to support the growth of regional safari operators, city hotels and coastal resorts that depend on reliable international air links.
Business, Trade and the African Diaspora
Beyond tourism, the Etihad–Ethiopian partnership has clear ramifications for business and trade flows between Africa, the Gulf and Asia. Both Abu Dhabi and Addis Ababa are important diplomatic and commercial centers. Addis Ababa houses the African Union and numerous international organizations, while Abu Dhabi is a major financial and energy hub with growing interests across the continent.
By offering more integrated schedules and single-ticket options, the joint venture is designed to smooth travel for executives, government delegations and investors who regularly move between African capitals and the Gulf. Better connectivity is expected to support sectors ranging from infrastructure and construction to technology, agriculture and logistics, where investors from the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf states have stepped up activity in recent years.
The agreement is also significant for the large African diaspora communities living in the Gulf, Australia and parts of Asia. For these travelers, the ability to fly home or visit relatives on a single itinerary, often with reduced travel times, is a tangible benefit. Ethiopian Airlines’ growing presence in India and Southeast Asia, combined with Etihad’s dense network around the Indian Ocean, further broadens options for family and community travel.
On the cargo side, both airlines have indicated that the joint venture opens room for deeper cooperation, particularly in moving high-value and time-sensitive goods. Perishable exports such as flowers, fresh produce and seafood from East Africa could see improved access to markets in the Gulf and Asia, while inbound flows of manufactured goods and industrial equipment may become more efficient as bellyhold capacity and schedules are coordinated.
How the Deal Fits Into Each Airline’s Long-Term Plans
The partnership is a central plank in Ethiopian Airlines’ long-term growth blueprint, known as Vision 2035. That strategy calls for a substantial increase in destinations, fleet size and passenger numbers, with the airline positioning Addis Ababa as the leading transfer hub for Africa. Tapping into Abu Dhabi’s traffic and Etihad’s global reach gives Ethiopian a new avenue for attracting long-haul passengers onto its African network.
For Etihad, the joint venture aligns with a broader pivot to sustainable expansion after a period of restructuring in the late 2010s and early 2020s. The airline has returned to profitability, reported stronger financial results and is now adding new destinations at a measured pace. Building deeper commercial ties with established local champions such as Ethiopian Airlines allows it to extend its footprint without deploying large amounts of new capacity on every route.
Commercially, the arrangement reflects a growing trend among global airlines to prioritize carefully targeted partnerships over outright equity investments. By sharing risk and coordinating networks on specific corridors, carriers can capture connecting traffic and provide passengers with more choice while avoiding the pitfalls that plagued some earlier attempts at cross-border airline ownership.
Industry observers say the tie-up between a Gulf carrier and Africa’s largest airline by network is especially symbolic. It underlines the extent to which Africa’s aviation market has matured, with homegrown players like Ethiopian now operating sophisticated hubs that are essential partners rather than mere feeder carriers for long-haul airlines based elsewhere.
What Travelers Should Know Before Booking
For would-be travelers considering routes that combine Etihad and Ethiopian Airlines, the key change is the ability to search for multi-leg itineraries on either carrier’s booking channels. Flights covered by the codeshare appear with shared flight numbers, and passengers can typically select through check-in and baggage transfers when buying a single ticket, whether they start their journey in Africa, the Gulf, Asia or Australia.
Schedules on the Abu Dhabi–Addis Ababa route are designed to feed banked connections at both hubs, but connection times, aircraft type and onboard product can vary by day and season. Travelers looking to maximize rest on long-haul trips may want to pay attention to layover durations and overnight timings when building itineraries, especially if they plan to connect onward to early-morning departures out of Addis Ababa or late-night flights from Abu Dhabi.
Frequent flyers on both airlines can also expect incremental benefits as integration deepens. While the initial focus has been on unlocking network synergies through codesharing and joint scheduling, both sides have signaled their intention to explore closer cooperation between loyalty programs, which could eventually allow members to earn and redeem miles across the two networks more easily.
For now, the practical upshot is that reaching African adventure destinations is simpler to plan and often quicker to fly. Whether the goal is a safari in East Africa, a city break in Addis Ababa or a multi-country tour combined with beaches in Southeast Asia or Australia, the new Etihad–Ethiopian partnership offers a more straightforward path than travelers had only a few seasons ago.