As part of our South African Safari trip, we first spent a week in the amazing Kruger National Park, and then we spent a week touring the Garden Route, culminating in a few days in Cape Town. And with that, our trip came to an end, and it was time to fly back home, to New York.

We flew from Cape Town CPT to Addis Ababa ADD, where we’d have an overnight layover, and then the next morning we’d fly from Addis Ababa ADD to New York JFK with a stopover at Abidjan ABJ. I previously reviewed the flight in Ethiopian Airlines Cloud9 Business Class from Cape Town to Addis Ababa, as well as our overnight stay at Ethiopian’s transit hotel: the Skylight Hotel. In this post I’ll be reviewing the Ethiopian Airlines Cloud9 Lounge, which we had access too as part of our business class itinerary to JFK. We were here in the morning, given that our flight to JFK was scheduled to depart at 9am.

Briefly, the Ethiopian Airlines Cloud9 Lounge is massive, with more space than they seem to know what to do with, since all facilities seems to be clustered together in the first half of the lounge. That said, there is ample comfortable seating, and I thought the lounge was generally a nice place to be before your flight, with some nice food options.

Hours and Location

The Ethiopian Airlines Cloud9 Lounge at Addis Ababa is open 24/7, since Ethiopian operates flights around the clock.

The Ethiopian Airlines Cloud9 Lounge is opposite Gate A13. If you’re originating in Addis Ababa, as a business class passenger you get access to the priority section of the terminal, which has a separate entrance to the left side of the terminal building.

When you make your way airside, you’ll want to turn left and follow the signgage. Make sure to look for signs for the ‘ET Cloud9’ lounge specifically, as there will be either separate or combined signs for the Silver, Gold and Platinum lounges as well.

As you make your way through the airport, weaving your way between the duty free shops, you’ll ultimately find the lounge opposite gate A13. The entrance is fairly obvious when you find it, with a red carpet and clear signgage.

Entering will lead straight into the reception area with a desk, staffed by several staff members. Gaining entrance was as easy as showing our boarding passes, which were scanned, upon which the friendly personnel invited us in.

Access Requirements

Note that the lounge situation at Addis Ababa has changed for Ethiopian flyers since December 2025, with some significant overhauls.

The Ethiopian Airlines Cloud9 Lounge is Ethiopian’s business class lounge, exclusively for Star Alliance business class passengers departing Addis Ababa, which includes Ethiopian Airlines’ own Cloud9 business class passengers, but also those of other Star Alliance airlines serving the airport (such as EgyptAir and Turkish Airlines). It doesn’t matter how you purchased your Cloud9 business class ticket, whether it’s a cash ticket, an award ticket or an upgrade from economy. Note that you have to depart Addis Ababa in Cloud9 business class to make use of this lounge. If you are arriving into Addis Ababa on business class and are in transit to a flight in economy, you will not be eligible access.

Separate of the Cloud9 Lounge, there’s also a dedicated lounge for those with Sheba Miles Silver status, and a Premium Lounge for those with Star Alliance Gold or Sheba Miles Gold or Platinum status that was opened in December 2025:

• Sheba Miles Silver passengers get access to the Sheba Miles Silver Lounge
• Sheba Miles Platinum and Gold, and Star Alliance Gold passengers get access to the Sheba Miles Platinum Star Gold Lounge.

Seating and Design

The lounge as a whole is a pretty gigantic these days, after the Cloud9 was combined with the old Platinum/Gold Lounge that was adjacent to the Cloud9 Lounge. When you enter the lounge there’s a corridor that leads past different rooms to the buffet and a large seating area, and then there will be some doorways that lead to a further area with plenty of seating that essentially doubles the size of the original Cloud9 lounge. It’s the second space that was the old Platinum/Gold lounge.

Turning left from the reception and directly in front of you will be a traditional Ethiopian setup for coffee ceremonies, served the traditional way from a tall pot into small cups, and distributed to guests from a tray by a staff member in traditional dress. I love when airlines weave their culture into the experience and this is a terrific experience of that. The design of the space is nice too, with the colorful stool upholstery, the floor tiles and the back wall imagery, though the rest is a little bland.

Turning right from the coffee room will lead you to a long corridor that runs the length of the lounge.

The first thing you’ll pass will be a set of prayer rooms on the left side, with dedicated rooms for men and woman. Then opposite that will be the first of various smaller seating areas, featuring a variety of seating types.

On the right there is a counter that looks like it’s an empty buffet, so perhaps at other times there’d be snacks here. Otherwise there’s cafe-style tables and lounge chairs setup for two people, as well as high-top communal tables. The aesthetic here is pretty clean and simple, with some Ethiopian Airlines branding providing a little splash of color.

Following the corridor further, the first door on the left is a short hallway that leads to a kids play area with some basic furniture but not much in the way of toys or games.

Continuing along the corridor there will be a sign that highlights all the available amenities, which are all further into the lounge. The first of these are two massage rooms. While the doors were open, there was no personnel at the checkin desk, so I didn’t see a way to schedule one of these.

Then on the right another room will open up to you, this one with a large, rectangular bar. This is quite a nice room, with colorful Ethiopian (African?) patterns and colors on the wall. I also really liked the light fixture above the bar and thought the general aesthetic was very nice. I didn’t see anybody working the bar, though.

Next, another room opens up from the corridor on the left. This is a long space consisting of more seating, again as cafe-style seating for two, and communal tables, and in the back there is a buffet with drinks and snacks. I didn’t see much in the way of outlets around here. More on that later.

As you walk through the final stretch of the corridor before entering the lounge proper, there are showers on the right. Again, I didn’t see any personnel at the podium, though I did the occasional guest leaving the showers. Perhaps I was just unlucky and passed by when there was nobody there.

Finally you emerge into the lounge proper from the corridor, and you’ll first bump into the main buffet, which will be just on your right. Otherwise, this is one of many large seating areas that the Cloud9 lounge has following the remodel and expansion. This one, however, has a large buffet, and so that’s probably why this space was by far the busiest.

On the left there is another bar, and this one was staffed. There’s more seating here as well, primarily restaurant-style seating for two or four people. Then on the right, just beyond the buffet, is a whole lot of seating, of various types. At the center of all this is a fancy light fixture suspended above a little tree, which I thought was kind of cute.

If you do go to back of the seating area and turn right, there will be two rooms with glass partitions to block sounds. The one on the left is a media room, with several rows of four chairs, with side tables, directed at a large TV screen. The one on the right is more lile a relaxation or nap room. In there are day beds, and the lights are turned down to allow for a nap.

I haven’t made much further images of the room as this was also the point where a staff member asked me if everything was all right, and told me I’m not allowed to make pictures. I apologized and said it was for a friend… So with that I don’t have much more material from here.

Instead, I went through the doorways you can see in the back of the seating area, in-between the dark-colored wall segments. If you go through there you’ll enter the second half of the lounge, which is massive, ahs tons of seating, and almost no people making use of it. Probably because there’s very little food in this part of the lounge.

In the first part of this space you’ll find comfortable lounge chairs along the windows, which bring in natural light, but unfortunately look out over the parking lot at the front of the terminal, and provide no view at all of the apron and the aircraft.

Right behind these chairs are a long communal table with high-top seating and various round or rectangular tables with 2 or 4 chairs. There are all quite comfortable, and as you can see, this morning there wasn’t a single person sitting here.

Turning right and moving away from the windows, you cna go further into this second half of the lounge. First you’ll pass by some semi-circular booths with a color scheme that seems more appropriate for Korean Air’s old branding then for Ethiopian, but at least the couches were reasonably comfortable. It did seem a little bit random, given the rest of the aesthetics, with those Ethiopian patterns on the walls.

That color carried over to some of the other seating in the lounge, including a series of sofas and armchairs. Over here there wasn’t a whole lot in terms of side tables, and I didn’t really see any outlets around here either.

If you look towards the back of this space you’ll notice a blue dot of sorts. There’s another bar here with high-top seating, but again this wasn’t staffed. And right in front of it, surrounded by a wooden structure with large window-like openings (behind those white planters) is another area for a coffee ceremony.

The coffee ceremony area is absolutely the funnest part of this space, with a style and personality that is rather lacking in the rest of the space. As in the other ceremony ‘pavilion’ by the lounge entrance, you’ll find the same tiles, furniture (in the back) and backdrop, featuring an Ethiopian-type coffe pot. The difference is in the seating, which definitely seems more comfortable here, if a lot less traditional.

Behind the coffee ceremony ‘pavilion’ is more seating, in the form of lounge chairs with side tables that actually do have outlets built into them. In front of the ceremony ‘pavilion’ is that bar I mentioned, with the high-top seating and a more cafe-style seating in front. There’s also some comfortable booths against the wall.

Then as you make you way back to the front of the space, towards the windows, there is a large buffet area, with a lot less food than the buffet could potentially accommodate. More on that later.

Overall, the Ethiopian Airlines Cloud9 Lounge is rather massive, with a lot of seating that mostly went unused. Or rather, most people stuck to the first large seating area, where there was a staffed bar and the large food buffet. I’d also argue that this part of the lounge has m ore personality in terms of the design.

The second half of the lounge, meanwhile, was very quiet and tranquil in comparison because there was next to nobody there, but there was also no particular reason to be there other than the silence. Generally, while the seating is plenty and generally comfortbale, it also felt like the design was all over the place. The only real perosnality here came from the ceremony ‘pavilion’.

Ultimately, I’m not sure if later in the day all the various bars would get staffed, but from what I have seen there’s plenty of places for buffets, snacks and bar service that go entirely underutilized. There’s no sign to indicate certain staffing hours either, so it leaves you with a feeling that there’s more space than the airline realistically knows what to do with.

Food and Drinks

The Ethiopian Airlines Cloud9 Lounge has one large buffet that offers hot and cold options, and additional buffets with a more limited setup. The first one you encounter is along the main corridor that you’ll walk through from the reception to the lounge proper. This large rectangular room has a buffet in the back.

This buffet primarily offers a selection of snacks in the form of fruits, vegetables and cheeses. Above all, it looks beautiful and appetizing, but by large there are raw ingredients that you could mix and match in whatever way you’d like, rather than ready-to-eat salads.

Behind the food you’ll also find a box with some pastries, and the drink station. This consists of a two espresso machines that cna make all manner of coffee, and then a large hot water tank with two spouts. Below these devices are also several fridges with primarily sodas.

Continuing into the main area of the lounge you’ll find the main buffet, which has a wealth of options and I was pleasantly surprised by the number of dishes available. Unfortunately I have no closeups as this is when a staff member told me to stop photographing, but the dishes on offer were a mix of Ethiopian, Western and some Asian dishes as well. I can’t recall the name of the Ethiopian dish, but other than that there were the usual English breakfast, but also some noodle and rice dishes. By the wall were also cold cuts and pastries.

The food at this buffet was overall quite nice. I tend to feel that breakfast is the mroe uninteresting meal to have in an lounge, as usually options aren’t very exciting. I appreciated that there was a local option or two, which is what I tried first and foremost and enjoyed. Other options, such as some lamb meatballs and chicken sausages, were also pretty good.

Over in the second half of the lounge was a third, much smaller buffet. The actual space dedicated to this buffet was rather large so it seems like the intent might be that at some point a full buffet is setup here as well? However, given that there were only a few dishes setup, it doesn’t seem like at other times there’d necessarily be more food on offer than there was now.

The options here were but a small selection of what was available at the main buffet, and included only some hot options. Among these were sandwiches, curry, fried rice and sausages, among other things.

I apologize for the lack of good pictures of the food, given that I was told I could not make photos. That said, I hope you can appreciate that there is a good spread of options and I think anybody will find something to eat here, between the large number of fruit and vegetable options and the hot dishes that include different cuisines. The food was also pretty good, and I enjoyed the breakfast I had here.

Showers and Restrooms

As mentioned, the lounge does have showers available. I wasn’t able to gain entrance and so am unsure what they look like, but they are located right by the main buffet.

Restrooms are scattered throughout the lounge, and I’m showing pictures of just one of them. This one was located right by the kids play area, and included three sinks with large mirrors, several urinals and some stalls as well. Overall these were quite clean when I visited, and practically designed.

Overall, restroom facilities in the lounge are perfectly fine. They are clean and practical, which is the least you can ask for, but don’t have any particularly fancy or nice design.

Summary

Overall, the Ethiopian Airlines Cloud9 Lounge is a solid facility with ample seating and decent food. Strikingly, this lounge has the full set of extra amenities that you would expect from a great lounge: two large buffets and up to three smaller ones, as well as three bars, two coffee ceremony pavilions, endless seatings, shower facilities, massage rooms and a kids play area. Though, in my opinion the lounge design is fine but rather uninspiring, given it could draw so much inspiration from the colorful and intriguing Ethiopian culture.

The main problem, as I see it, is that most facilities were unstaffed and went unused. For the buffets and bars this mean that people concentrated in the ‘original’ first half of the lounge, as it’s close to the food. I do hope that later in the day the other buffets and areas get staffed and become operational, so that people can spread out more and use the full extent of the space on offer. On the other hand, this does allow one to grab food and drinks and then take a stroll to the back of the second half of this lounge, to eat and relax in quiet serenity, so to some this may be a boon.

While I’d be happy to come back and spend time here before my flight (like I said, this is basically a solid facility with decent food and comfy seating), I can’t help but feel that this lounge is a missed opportunity. Like with the onboard business class experience, it seems all ingredients are here to make this lounge a great place if there was investment to elevate the design and fully utilize all facilities that are already there. Instead, it feels as though there is seemingly more space than the airline knows what to do with.