Ethiopian Airlines has signed the deal for the ‘biggest airport in Africa’ with the first phase predicted to cost $6 billion. Mesfin Tasew, the head of state-owned Ethiopian Airlines, said this money will come from loans which companies are already voicing interest in. The Dubai-based engineering and consulting firm Sidara will design the airport, the company’s director of operations Tariq Al Qanni has said.
Ethiopian Airlines carried 17 million passengers in the 2023/2024 financial year, and is expecting to carry 20 million passengers in the current financial year which began in July. Mesfin stated that Bole Addis Ababa International Airport, the current main hub for Africa’s biggest airline, will soon reach capacity of serving 25 million passengers per year. “It is a five-year project (that) will be finalised in 2029. It will be the biggest in Africa,” Mesfin said.
Ethiopia has signed an agreement for the design of a new four-runway airport which, when construction is complete in 2029, will be Africa’s largest, the head of state-owned Ethiopian Airlines said on Friday. Plans to build the airport were first announced in 2018. Located near the town of Bishoftu, around 45 km (28 miles) from the capital AddisAbaba, the airport will have capacity to handle 100 million passengers a year and provide parking for 270 aircraft, Ethiopian Airlines’ CEO Mesfin Tasew told a news conference.
