Is Ethiopian Airlines reliable?

Ranked 89 of 94 US airlines on on-time record.

2,682 flights · March 2025 – August 2026 · US Bureau of Transportation Statistics

69.31%

Arrived on time

Within 15 minutes of schedule

5.37%

Cancelled

Share of scheduled flights

16 min

When late, late by

Average across delayed arrivals

—

Delays it caused itself

Rest was weather, ATC or security

Reading Ethiopian Airlines’ record

Cancellation is where Ethiopian Airlines stands out, and not well: it cancelled 5.37% of its flights against a median of 1.21% across the airlines here — 4.5 times the typical rate. Cancellation is also the outcome that costs a traveller a day rather than an hour, and the one that triggers a refund entitlement where delay does not.

Ethiopian Airlines sits in the bottom fifth of the 94 airlines measured.

The extremes are far apart. On MAN to ADD it arrived on time 87.61% of the time; on ADD to LGW the figure was 42.34%. Same airline, same fleet, same procedures — which is the clearest argument on this site for checking the route rather than the carrier.

Ethiopian Airlines’ record swings sharply from route to route — roughly 16 points either side of its own average. An overall figure hiding that much variation is not much use on its own: the route you are flying matters more than the airline's headline number, and this is a carrier whose average is being held up by some routes and dragged down by others.

Arrives on time 69.31%

Rarely cancels 5.37% cancelled

Short delays when late 16 min when late

Few self-inflicted delays % its own fault

Same wherever it flies ±16 pts across routes

Each axis is a percentile against the other US airlines in the same period, not an absolute score. Further out is better than most; nearer the centre is worse than most.

Ethiopian Airlines in five measures

An airline's headline on-time rate hides more than it shows. Two carriers can both arrive on time 75% of the time while one is late by twelve minutes and the other by an hour, or while one is evenly mediocre everywhere and the other is excellent on most routes and dreadful on a few.

These five axes pull those apart. Each is scored against the other US airlines in the same period rather than on an absolute scale, because on-time rates cluster tightly enough that raw numbers would draw every carrier as the same shape.

Same everywhere is the one worth reading twice: it measures how far Ethiopian Airlines’ on-time rate moves from route to route. A carrier scoring low there has an average propped up by routes you may not be flying.

Ethiopian Airlines month by month

Its most reliable routes

Its worst routes

How Ethiopian Airlines compares

Transavia 89 1.3%

Air Malta 87 1.2%

China Eastern Airlines 86 1.2%

Gol Linhas Aéreas 87 1.2%

Air China 84 1.2%

Azul Linhas Aéreas 87 1.2%

Copa Airlines 84 1.2%

All Nippon Airways 83 1.2%

Icelandair 83 1.2%

Delta Air Lines 82 1.2%

SAS 84 1.2%

Thai Airways 81 1.2%

Japan Airlines 81 1.2%

Alaska Airlines 81 1.2%

Air Europa 79 1.1%

Norwegian 80 1.1%

Virgin Atlantic 82 1.2%

Condor 80 1.1%

Austrian Airlines 79 1.1%

Wizz Air 78 1.1%

KLM Cityhopper 78 1.1%

TAP Air Portugal 79 1.1%

Wizz Air UK 78 1.1%

LATAM Brasil 79 1.1%

Singapore Airlines 77 1.1%

airBaltic 76 1.1%

British Airways 78 1.1%

Wizz Air Malta 76 1.1%

Turkish Airlines 76 1.1%

SkyWest Airlines 78 1.1%

Vueling 76 1.1%

BA CityFlyer 77 1.1%

Qantas 79 1.1%

Republic Airways 81 1.2%

Virgin Australia 77 1.1%

Loganair 79 1.1%

Air Serbia 74 1.1%

Korean Air 74 1.1%

United Airlines 75 1.1%

Royal Jordanian 76 1.1%

Ryanair UK 73 1.0%

easyJet 73 1.0%

Oman Air 74 1.1%

JetBlue Airways 75 1.1%

Envoy Air 79 1.1%

QantasLink 78 1.1%

Aegean Airlines 73 1.0%

Ryanair 72 1.0%

Aer Lingus 75 1.1%

Emerald Airlines UK 76 1.1%

Air Canada 76 1.1%

Iberia 79 1.1%

Air Transat 71 1.0%

Jetstar 74 1.1%

Eurowings 72 1.0%

Corendon Airlines 70 1.0%

LOT Polish Airlines 70 1.0%

Vietnam Airlines 70 1.0%

SKY Airline 74 1.1%

BA Euroflyer 69 1.0%

SriLankan Airlines 69 1.0%

Air France 71 1.0%

Allegiant Air 69 1.0%

SunExpress 69 1.0%

Jet2 68 1.0%

Lufthansa 74 1.0%

Frontier Airlines 71 1.0%

Etihad Airways 73 1.0%

Virgin Australia Regional Airlines 70 1.0%

Qatar Airways 76 1.1%

Finnair 74 1.1%

Emirates 72 1.0%

easyJet Switzerland 73 1.0%

Biman Bangladesh Airlines 71 1.0%

Gulf Air 78 1.1%

LATAM Airlines 66 0.9%

American Airlines 71 1.0%

KLM 72 1.0%

Rex Airlines 72 1.0%

Southwest Airlines 66 0.9%

easyJet Europe 72 1.0%

Swiss International Air Lines 67 1.0%

Aurigny 73 1.0%

El Al 69 1.0%

Brussels Airlines 65 0.9%

Kenya Airways 61 0.9%

TUI Airways 59 0.8%

PSA Airlines 72 1.0%

Ethiopian Airlines 69 1.0%

Blue Islands 65 0.9%

Kuwait Airways 79 1.1%

Royal Air Maroc 55 0.8%

Aerolíneas Argentinas 61 0.9%

Air India 45 0.6%

Figures cover March 2025 – August 2026 and are counted from the regulators' own published files. A grade describes the past and is not a prediction about a particular flight, nor a safety rating. How the grade is calculated →