By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Ethiopia has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a Dubai-based engineering and consulting firm Sidara for the construction of a new four-runway airport that will be Africa’s biggest upon completion in 2029, the head of state-owned Ethiopian Airlines said on Friday.
Located near the town of Bishoftu, about 45 km away from the capital Addis Ababa, the airport will have capacity to handle 100 million passengers a year and provide parking for 270 aircraft, Ethiopian Airlines’ CEO Mesfin Tasew said at a news conference.
Sidara will design the airport, the company’s director of operations Tariq Al Qanni said.
Mesfin said Bole Addis Ababa International Airport, the current main hub for Africa’s biggest airline, will soon reach its 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.
He added, “Phase one alone will cost at least $6 billion… The money will come through loans and there are already companies that already showed interest.”
Plans to build the airport were first announced in 2018.
Ethiopian Airlines carried 17 million passengers in the 2023/2024 financial year.
It has projected to carry 20 million passengers in the financial year that started in July.
