Ethiopian Airlines, Ethiopia’s national carrier, and Dar Al-Handasah, an international consulting firm, signed an agreement on Friday to plan and oversee a new mega airport to be built near the town of Bishoftu, about 42 kilometers east of the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

The new airport will have a capacity of 100 million passengers a year and provide parking for 270 aircraft, Mesfin Tasew, CEO of Ethiopian Airlines Group, said in a briefing, Xinhua news agency reported.

“The new airport with four runways will be the largest in Africa when it is completed in 2029,” Tasew told reporters, stressing that the airline is writing a new chapter in its aviation history with this mega airport project.

The CEO said Addis Ababa Bole International Airport, currently the main hub of Africa’s largest airline, will soon reach its capacity of 25 million passengers per year.

“The new mega airport is a five-year project that will be completed in 2029. It will be in two phases, and after the completion of the first phase with two runways, the airport will have a capacity of 60 million passengers per year,” Tasew said.

According to him, phase one alone will cost the airline at least $6 billion. The money will come from loans from companies that have already shown interest.

Ethiopian Airlines carried 17.1 million passengers in the 2023/2024 financial year and expects to carry 20 million passengers in the new financial year beginning on July 8, 2024.

The new airport will be built on a total area of ​​35 square kilometers and will include shopping and hotel facilities. Once the project planning is completed, the construction of the mega airport will be put out to tender.