Route: ADD-JRO
Airline: Ethiopian Airlines
Flight Number: ET 815
Aircraft Type: Airbus A350-900
Registration: ET-AVB
Class: Economy

Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJ2QA50TXmo

This is the second part of my journey from Bangalore, India to Kilimanjaro, Tanzania on Ethiopian. Link to part 1: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1427719&p=21534293#p21534293

After a heavily delayed arrival into ADD from BOM, we were, as usual, bussed to the terminal and were allowed to skip security and go directly to the gate as a result of our late arrival. Surprisingly, we lucked out and managed to get a contact gate at ADD and got to fly on the brand new A350. The plane itself was a few months old and I could still smell the brand new interior.

The difference between this and the old cabin on the 787-8 was noticeable. The biggest difference was the responsiveness of the touchscreen (I could feel the person behind me forcefully touching the screen on the previous flight). Taxi and takeoff took a little longer than usual due to most of the Africa widebody bank leaving at around the same time. This was my first time on the A350 and it was a lot quieter than the 787 and I could barely hear it. Link to takeoff video: https://youtu.be/z4zBc2SlJGE

As we reached cruising altitude there was a problem. Although I was allocated veg meals at BOM, the order didn't go through for this flight so all I had to was the cheese, crackers and fruits on the side though this wasn't much of a problem on this short flight. Soon we were descending into Kilimanjaro. Sadly the weather was cloudy and we didn't have ta chance to get a view of the mountain in the sunset. However, I did catch it on the way out. Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EN1eHx7RI5k

This flight was uneventful but I did appreciate the comfortable, new long-haul A350 that ET use on this route and would gladly fly them again. ET is the best option to get from India to Africa even more so since they have now added flights to MAA and BLR. Given the price and the reasonable layover times, I would gladly choose ET over ME3 when travelling to Africa.

Previous trip reports:

Air India, BLR-MLE: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1444609&p=22153357#p22153357

Ethiopian Airlines, BOM-ADD: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1427719&p=21534293#p21534293

Jet Airways, SIN-BLR: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1374593&p=19838559#p19838559

Cathay Pacific 747-400, HKG-HND: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1387423&p=20201661#p20201661

Emirates, DXB-MUC: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1400239&p=20595919#p20595919

Vistara, BLR-DEL: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1411329&p=20954583#p20954583

Neat video report
2-hour on brand new A350 with meal sounds nice