New route news: Qatar Airways grows at Manchester, Ethiopian Airlines adds Gatwick

News in brief:

Qatar Airways adds additional flights from Manchester this winter

Qatar Airways is moving back to its pre-covid level of three daily flights at Manchester Airport.

There are currently 18 flights per week. From 30th October there will be an extra service every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, taking the airport back to 21 flights per week.

You can check flight times and aircraft – the aircraft type moves around quite a bit – on the airline website here.

Ethiopian Airlines decides to grow from Gatwick

You may remember our interview with Ethiopian Airlines CEO Mesfin Tasew last month.

We talked about his plans to grow from London and he said:

“Prior to COVID we used to have three more flights per week to Heathrow; we used to have ten weekly flights from London but now we’re limited to seven. In the short term we’re hopeful that we will restore our pre-pandemic frequency of ten and eventually increase to double daily.

“Heathrow is our preferred option. The current plan is to increase frequency to London Heathrow Airport. If we cannot do that then we will go to Gatwick.”

Mesfin has been as good as his word. The airline – having clearly failed to pick up suitable Heathrow slots to add to its existing seven – is adding flights at London Gatwick.

There will be three flights per week from 21st November, leaving every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday.

Flights from Manchester will continue as normal. There are five services per week from Manchester to Addis via Geneva – and if you want to simply fly from Manchester to Geneva in a flat bed business class seat you can, as we did last year.

Our review of Ethiopian Airlines ‘Cloud 9’ business class from our trip to Addis earlier this year is here.

Ethopian Airlines is a member of Star Alliance so you can earn or redeem miles on its flights via any Star Alliance frequent flyer programme.

You can check the timings and prices of the new flights on the Ethiopian Airlines website here.