Ethiopian Airlines will begin construction of a new $5 billion airport later this year, according to its chief executive officer, Tewolde Gebremariam, as the rapidly-expanding carrier outgrows capacity at its current base in Addis Ababa.
Gebremariam says the construction will begin in the next six months.
The airport, which will cover an area of 35 square km, will be built in Bishoftu, a town 39 km south east of the capital, and have the capacity to handle 100 million passengers a year.
“Because Bole Airport is not going to accommodate us; we have beautiful expansion project, the airport looks very beautiful and very large but with the growth that we are going every year in about 3 or 4 years we are going to be full,” Gebremariam says.
Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa has a passenger capacity of about 19 million passengers annually.
Gebremariam notes that the new airport’s price tag is higher than the $4 billion cost of building the yet-to-be-completed Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Nile.
In 2018, Addis Ababa overtook Dubai as the top transit hub for long-haul passengers into Africa. In 2019 China funded the expansion of Bole Airport was, allowing it to accommodate 22 million passengers annually. Gebremariam has not said how the new airport, which will accommodate 100 million passengers ,will be funded.
The continent has been notoriously under-connected by air, and Ethiopian airlines is changing that, with flights to more than 60 African cities. The company also owns stakes in several local airlines based in other countries.