As Reuters reported, the CEO of Ethiopian Airlines told reporters that the airport will have a capacity of 100 million passengers per year and will have parking space for 270 aircraft.
The airport would be located near the city of Bishoftu, about 45 kilometers from the country’s capital, Addis Ababa.
Sidara, a Dubai-based engineering and consulting firm, has been commissioned to plan the airport, according to the company’s operations manager, Tariq Al Qanni.
“It is a five-year project that will be completed in 2029. It will be the largest in Africa,” explained Mesfin. “Phase one alone will cost at least $6 billion… The money will be provided through loans and there are already companies that have shown interest.” he added.
First plans
Plans for the airport were first announced in 2018, as seen on Africannews. At the time, it was announced that the airport would be able to handle 80 million passengers per year when fully operational. The facility will cover 35 square kilometers.
“Bole Airport will not be able to accommodate us. We have a nice expansion project, the airport looks very nice and very big, but with the growth we are experiencing every year, we will be full in about 3 or 4 years. So we started a new project around Bishoftu, a place called Absera,“, Mesfin said at the time.
“We have identified 35 square kilometers of land to be developed as an airport. The project is about $5 billion more expensive than the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). And it will be able to accommodate 100 million passengers. It is larger than Dubai and more or less the same as the new Istanbul airport,” he added.
