Ethiopia’s transport ministry is finalizing plans to start building a new airport for the capital Addis Ababa next year. The facility, expected to take eight years and cost $4 billion, will serve as a major hub for African air transport, according to Ethiopian transport minister Workneh Gebeyehu.
In late September he told the Airport, Infrastructures and MRO conference in Addis Ababa that the airport will have four runways and capacity for more than 100 million passengers per year. The Ethiopian government has narrowed the choice of prospective sites to three, all of which are between 37 and 44 miles from the center of Addis Ababa. French airport engineering specialist ADPI is conducting the planning study for the new facility.
Meanwhile, Ethiopian Airports Enterprise is completing a $350 million expansion of Addis Ababa’s existing Bole International Airport. This project is scheduled for completion in 2018 and will triple the current passenger capacity of 7 million per year.