Ethiopian Airlines $5 Billion Airport Building to Start

Ethiopian Airlines $5 Billion Airport Building to Start

Ethiopian Airlines has announced plans to begin construction of its new $5 billion airport this year, a move that seeks to increase its annual passenger capacity from the 19 million that Bole International Airport holds.

According to the airline’s CEO, Tewolde Gebremariam, the airport will cover 35 square kilometres, built in Bishoftu, 62km away from Addis Ababa. Once complete, it will have an annual passenger capacity of 100 million passengers, even as the airline boasts of being the largest and busiest in Africa.

However, he did not give details of funding of the project, but he argues that it will be larger than the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam project.

Ethiopian Airlines, headquartered at Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, is Africa’s largest airline in terms of passengers carried, destinations served, fleet size, and revenue. It is also among the top airlines globally in terms of the number of countries served flying to over 80 countries around the world.

African news reports that in 2019 alone, it carried 12 million passengers and transported over 432,000 tons of freight grossing over $4 billion in the process.