Ethiopian Airlines is Africa’s largest carrier, although there is not much competition for that title. On January 6, the Star Alliance member announced its latest European city: Lyon. It’ll fly there via Geneva. Ethiopian has many existing one-stop European routes.
The Geneva-Lyon leg will cover just 53 nautical miles (98 km) each way. It will, unsurprisingly, become Europe’s new shortest Airbus A350 operation and shortest scheduled widebody service. But there’s a downside. Fifth freedom traffic rights do not seem to be available.
Ethiopian Adds Lyon To Its Network
Credit:Â GCMap
Ethiopian has served France for decades. For most of the time, this necessarily meant 
Paris CDG. Things have changed in recent years, coinciding with its aggressive expansion and its critical role in connecting Africa to the world. In 2019, the carrier began Marseille flights. And now, in 2026, it’ll launch service to Lyon. It’ll have passenger flights to three French cities and airports for the first time.
On July 2, it’ll lift off from its Addis Ababa hub to Lyon, with a three-weekly operation. All flights will utilize the 348-seat Airbus A350-900. This has 30 business seats with a fully flat bed (1-2-1 or 2-2-2) and 318 economy seats (3-3-3; 32″ pitch). According to ch-aviation, Ethiopian now has 22 A350-900s. The variant is now its leading widebody, overtaking its 20 Boeing 787-8s.
At just 53 nautical miles (98 km) each way, Geneva-Lyon will be Europe’s new shortest A350-operated flight. (It is marginally shorter than British Airways’ shortest Boeing 777 service.) Cirium Diio data shows Geneva-Lyon is less than half the distance from Milan Malpensa to Zurich, which was to be number one in 2026 and which is also operated by Ethiopian.
Leg
Times; Local
Nautical Miles (km)**
Block Time***
Addis Ababa to Geneva
12:10 am-6:30 am
2,802 (5,189)
7h 20m
Geneva to Lyon
7:30 am-8:15 am
53 (98)
45m
Lyon To Geneva
7:20 pm-8:05 pm
53 (98)
45m
Geneva to Addis Ababa
9:05 pm-4:55 am (next day arrival)
2,802 (5,189)
6h 50m
* Shown in Simple Flying’s new time format
** Based on the great circle distance
*** Chocks-off-to-chocks-on
Hang On: Why All Day In France?
Credit:Â Shutterstock
The operating aircraft will remain on the ground in Lyon for 11 hours. Due to Addis-Europe having little demand (except for Rome), the day-long wait is to maximize two-way connectivity at its Addis hub. Most of Ethiopian’s flights from across the vast African continent arrive in Addis in the mid-to-late evening. As such, many of its European (and Asian, Middle East, and North American) flights depart in the very early morning. At 12:10 am, Lyon will be no exception.
Most of Ethiopian’s Africa-wide services depart from Addis Ababa in the morning, starting from about 08:00. As such, many of its European (and Asian, Middle East, and North American) flights arrive home in the very early morning. Again, Lyon will be no exception, with a scheduled arrival time of 4:55 am, although that’s a bit earlier than most of them.
The carrier’s A350s will stay on the ground in Lyon all day. This is to ensure that flights are timed to connect with the largest number of inbound and outbound African flights. Other airlines do similar things. Icelandair, for example, grounds its aircraft in some US airports for 24+ hours to drive feed.
In Ethiopian’s case, it is a much cheaper and lower-risk option than using separate aircraft to serve Geneva and Lyon. And Lyon itself could not sustain a standalone operation anyway, as booking data for the 12 months to October 2025 shows traffic is not particularly high. Important targets will include Cape Town, Douala, Johannesburg, Kinshasa, the Seychelles, Yaoundé, and Zanzibar.
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Ethiopian’s One-Stop European Routes
Credit:Â GCMap
The map above shows all of Ethiopian’s one-stop European services in July. They may be somewhat different at other times of the year. Recent additions include Warsaw, launched in July 2024 due to the Star Alliance connection, and Porto, which first saw the carrier in July 2025 due to its inability to obtain Lisbon slots.
Some European airports are served on a standalone basis. Flights do not stop en route and are not extended elsewhere. They include Athens, Brussels, Frankfurt, Istanbul Airport, London Gatwick, London Heathrow, Moscow Domodedovo, Paris CDG, and Rome Fiumicino. Previously, several of these airports—even Paris CDG—were tagged with another airport.
Note that Ethiopian’s one-stop North American services via Rome do not count, as they simply stop to refuel and possibly change crew. It has separate, standalone Addis-Rome-Addis flights, which don’t go elsewhere.