(Posted 11th August 2024)
A Dubai-based engineering and consulting company by the name of Sidara will design the new international airport, it was confirmed in Addis Ababa after an agreement was signed with the company by Ethiopian Airlines.
Ethiopian Airlines Group CEO Mr. Mesfin Tasew Bekele, who rose to the helm of the airline in 2022, said that Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, which is the current home base for Africa’s biggest airline, will soon reach its capacity of serving 25 million passengers per year. Further expansion of Bole would be very challenging, given the vicinity to the city.
The new airport will be located near the town of Bishoftu, which is 45 kms from the capital Addis Ababa. The yet to be named airport will have the capacity to handle up to 100 million passengers a year, making it the largest in Africa and one of the largest in the world. It will provide parking for up to 270 aircraft, Ethiopian Airlines’ CEO Mesfin Tasew confirmed.
Operations are said to start with initially two runways but two more runways will be constructed in the second phase of building before the project is completed.
Phase one should mature in 2027/8 with two runways and a capacity of up to 60 million passengers.
“It is a five-year project that will be finalised in 2029. It will be the biggest in Africa,” Mr. Mesfin said before adding: “Phase one alone will cost at least 6 billion US Dollars. The money will come through loans and there are already companies that showed interest.”
Ethiopian Airlines carried over 17 million passengers during the 2023/2024 financial year, and expects to carry about 20 million passengers in the financial year that started in July, after the rapidly rising demand for airtravel following the Covid 19 pandemic. Further fleet expansion, with dozens of new long and short / medium haul aircraft on order, will facilitate yet greater passenger numbers.
The airline serves some 60 key airports across Africa, offering the best connectivity within the continent and beyond to the Middle East, India, the Far East, Australia but also to Europe, North and South America.
Notably does Ethiopian Airlines also operate the country’s airports as part of the group’s activities, and several of them have more recently been modernized to increase domestic operations – while the international airport in Addis Abeba has also been expanded and modernized in recent years to allow for smooth handling of the constantly growing passenger numbers transiting through Addis.
The only other noteworthy major airport project in the Eastern African region is unfolding in Rwanda, where Qatar Airways has taken a major stake in the airport project – and is due to soon sign a partnership and shareholding deal with nattional carrier RwandAir.
In sharp contrast is the erstwhile leading Eastern African airport Jomo Kenyatta International in Nairobi once again subject to a major controversy over a deal signed with a foreign firm.
Plans to expand the airport and build a second runway and a second major terminal building (Greenfield Terminal) were shelved under the Uhuru Kenyatta government some years ago, leading not only to massive claims by the construction company which had already mobilised equipment and broken ground at the time but actually costing the country dearly in terms of aviation facilities and growth opportunities.
The now confirmed development in Ethiopia is likely to relegate Nairobi further down the ranking list as national carrier Kenya Airways also continues to struggle with long standing debts, operational challenges and an apparent lack of vision for the future.
