Ethiopia begins building Africa’s largest airport (VIDEO)

Ethiopia has begun construction of an international airport, expected to open by 2030 and become Africa’s largest.

Ethiopia’s state-owned carrier, Ethiopian Airlines, officially commenced construction on the $12.5 billion Bishoftu International Airport (BIA) on Saturday, in a ceremony attended by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and airline executives.

BIA “will be the largest aviation infrastructure project in Africa’s history,” Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said on X, adding that “the first phase of the airport will handle 60 million passengers per year, with an ultimate master plan capacity of 110 million passengers annually.”

The airport will include four runways and parking space for up to 270 aircraft, which vastly exceeds the capacity of the current main international airport, Addis Ababa’s Bole International, with around 25 million passengers per year.

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The airport site is located 40 km southeast of Addis Ababa at an altitude of 1,910 meters, which offers “optimal conditions” for handling origin-destination and transit passengers, Abiy said.

Funding for the airport will come from a mix of sources, including Ethiopian Airlines, international financiers, and the African Development Bank. According to the airline’s Infrastructure Development and Planning director, Abraham Tesfaye, the national carrier will contribute around 30% of the project’s cost, while the remaining funding will be provided by lenders.

The project follows several other large infrastructure and industrial initiatives launched in Ethiopia in recent months. In October, Abiy Ahmed officially announced two major industrial projects in the southeastern city of Gode – a urea fertilizer plant and an oil refinery.

In September, Ethiopia inaugurated the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile, Africa’s largest hydroelectric facility, with a generation capacity of up to 5.15 gigawatts.