The airport will be located in Bishoftu, about 40 kilometers southeast of the capital Addis Ababa, and will cover an area of 35 square kilometers.
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Guests view the Boeing 787 Dreamliner upon arrival in Addis Ababa on August 17, 2012. (AFP/Getty Images)
Ethiopian Airlines has signed a contract to design a new $6 billion airport, which state media say will be Africa’s largest.
According to Mesfin Tasew, CEO of Ethiopian Airlines, who announced this at a press conference on Friday, the new hub is expected to handle 100 million passengers annually once it is completed in five years.
Tasew announced that Ethiopian Airlines had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Dubai-based consulting firm Dar to develop the airport design, which will have four runways.
The airport will be located in Bishoftu, about 40 kilometers southeast of the capital Addis Ababa, and will cover an area of 35 square kilometers.
“The first phase includes the construction of the airport facility with a capacity of 60 million passengers per year. After the completion of the second phase of the airport project, it will handle more than 100 million passengers per year,” Mesfin said, according to the state-run Fana Broadcasting Corporation.
Largest airport in Africa
Tariq Al-Qanni, Dar’s operations manager, told the press conference that the airport will be the largest in Africa once completed, Fana said.
“The scope of the agreement is that Dar will develop the detailed design of the new airport while assisting Ethiopian Airlines in the selection of contractors who will build the new airport facilities,” Mesfin stressed.
Ethiopian Airlines, Africa’s largest airline, last month reported revenue of $7 billion for the 2023/24 fiscal year and carried 17.1 million passengers.
Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, the airline’s current hub, has a maximum annual capacity of 25 million passengers.
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