Ethiopian Airlines has signed an agreement with Dar Al-Handasah, an international consulting firm, for the design and supervision of a new mega airport to be built near Bishoftu town, about 42 km east of the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa.
The new airport, which will be the biggest in Africa when completed, will have the capacity to handle 100 million passengers a year and provide parking for 270 aircraft. Mesfin Tasew, Chief Executive Officer, Ethiopian Airlines Group, in a briefing said that the airline “is writing a new chapter in its aviation history”.
He added that the current Addis Ababa International Airport, presently the main hub for Africa’s largest airline, will “soon” reach its capacity of serving 25 million passengers annually.
The new mega airport is a five-year project that will be finalised in 2029. It will have two phases, and upon completion of the first phase with two runways, the airport will have the capacity to handle 60 million passengers a year.
Tasew said.
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According to him, phase one alone will cost the airline at least $6 billion, and the money will come from loans from companies that have already shown interest.
The new airport, to be built on a total area of 35 square km, will include shopping and hotel facilities. Once the project design is completed, the construction of the mega airport will be put out to tender.
Ethiopian Airlines carried 17.1 million passengers in the 2023/2024 financial year and expects to carry 20 million passengers in the new financial year that started on 8th July 2024.
Featured image by Planespotters.net/Kaan Can Ozdemir
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