Review: Ethiopian Airlines Domestic Lounge Addis Ababa (ADD)

By Leila

a glass door with a red rug in front of it

Ahead of our flight to Awassa, we spent about an hour in the Ethiopian Airlines Lounge in the Addis Ababa domestic terminal.

Ethiopian Airlines Domestic Lounge Review – Addis Ababa (ADD)

While Ethiopian operates two lounges, a Cloud 9 lounge for business class passengers and a Shebamiles Platinum Lounge for Star Alliance Gold members, in Terminal 2, it only operates a single lounge in the domestic terminal.

This lounge is accessible to Star Alliance Gold passengers and Cloud 9 (business class) passengers. It is located past security in the middle of the gate area (domestic flights in ADD depart from remote gates). Hours are not posted and the lounge is not even listed on the Ethiopian Airlines website or on the Star Alliance Lounge Finder tool.

When I got there, there wasn’t even anyone at the desk…we just walked in and sat down. About 10 minutes later, an agent showed up, came over, and collected our boarding passes, returning them presumably after scanning them.

a flower bouquet on a desk

The lounge itself included individual chairs with tables around them, many of which had plugs (universal plus USB-A). Wi-Fi was available and worked reasonably well.

a room with chairs and tables

a room with chairs and a television

a room with two chairs and a table

a room with chairs and a television on the wall

a room with a television and chairs

a room with a table and chairs

A cafeteria-style buffet in the middle of the lounge had several hot items, but honestly, the food looked like it had been sitting out for days (and I could be totally wrong on that, but it did not look fresh and I did not eat anything):

a trays on a table

a basket of bread in plastic wrap
Packaged muffins and bread rolls
a metal container with food in it
Ground beef?
a tray of food with tongs
Egg fritata
a bowl of rice and raisins in a container
Rice with golden raisins
a tray of food with a metal container
Potatoes
a metal container with food in it
Chickpeas, kidney beans, and peas
a tray of chicken nuggets
Fried something…
a container of food with a spoon
Sausage with sliced carrots and zucchini

I did have some cofeee..

a machine on a counter

a red refrigerator with drinks and beverages

a cup of coffee on a napkin

Fruit juice, water, and soda was availbale, but no alochol.

The lounge also had restrooms:

a bathroom with a sink and toilet

CONCLSUION

While this is not a lounge I would ever show up early for, It was appreciated…it beat waiting in the gate area that lacked power outlets and comfortable chairs. I love oneworld emerald status, but I still think the single most important status is Star Allinace Gold, whch opens up lounge access in so many places around the world.