Ethiopian Airlines to Build $5 Billion Mega Airport

Ethiopian Airlines has revealed plans to build a mega airport at a cost of USD5 billion (KSh500 billion).

The construction of the modern facility will commence later this year in Bishoftu, a town located 39 kilometers southeast of Addis Ababa, according to Ethiopian chief executive officer Tewolde Gebremariam. The airport, which will cover an area of 35 square km, will have the capacity to handle 100 million passengers a year.

“Bole Airport is not going to accommodate us; we have a beautiful expansion project. The airport looks very beautiful and very large but with the way that we are growing, in about three or four years we are going to be full,” the state-run Ethiopian News Agency quoted Tewolde.

Addis Ababa’s Bole International Airport has a capacity of about 19 million passengers annually. Tewolde, who said the construction will begin in the next six months, did not disclose how it would be funded nor who would build the new airport.

State-owned Ethiopian Airlines has 116 aircraft in its fleet and its net profit grew to $260 million in its 2018/19 financial year, from $207.2 million in the previous year.