Flights to the Horn are REALLY expensive!!

R/T. There was one time a couple years ago when I saw a miraculous fare to Cairo for $600 including tax. Getting a ticket from Addis on Egypt Air or Ethiopian Air would still bring the grand total up to about $1000, though, so yes, you're dreaming...it can take 24 hours to travel there from NYC! Realistically, how cheap could it possibly get? When I originally looked into getting to Ethiopia that route (only if I could find another good rate to Cairo) it didn't work as well with my limited time off due to flight schedules...would have ended up with only 14 days in Ethiopia instead of 16, and those extra days are so precious. And doubly sad, I have never seen a ticket under $900 to Cairo since that crazy fare a few years ago (or before, really...that was a really unusual price).

As far as I know, the only inexpensive place to fly in Africa from NYC is Morocco (I saw $550 tickets just a few months ago), and you can't get to Ethiopia from there cheaply enough to justify the detour, unless you have loads of time for a different type of adventure.

Oh, and for what it's worth...I bought my ticket way back in July knowing I was traveling during the holidays and the fares could raise. Had been seeing $1500 so when $1350 came up I jumped on it. By the time November rolled around, December tickets had jumped to $1800. So yes, I do think $1333 r/t is a good deal.

However, if you're only trying for one-way...international one-way fares are rarely much less than the r/t. If you know where you're flying out of & approximate dates, an open-jaw ticket often costs much less than 2 one-ways. For example, just looked up flying into Addis and out of Nairobi and came up with $1427.

I had in summer ticket with Turkish Airwais from Prague to Addis via Istambul (stopower with paid hotel) and Sudan for 400 EUR including taxes.
I think that they had / have the same price from any place in Europe.

I think also going over Sanaa / Yemen is a good idea. There are flights with return for i think 175 USD. Ethiopian Airways and Yemenia.