Ethiopian airline will build the Africa’s largest airport, with construction possibly beginning as soon as this July.
The constructing of the new $5 billion airport by Ethiopian Airlines will start later this year, its chief executive officer said on Wednesday.
Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation quoted the airline’s chief executive Tewolde Gebremariam saying “the airport may be bigger than France’s Charles de Gaulle.”
It would be sited on 35 sq km of land between the town of Bishoftu and Zequala mountain. Bishoftu is about 48km southeast of the capital, Addis Ababa. As the rapidly-expanding carrier outgrows capacity at its current base in Bole.
“Bole Airport is not going to accommodate us; we have a beautiful expansion project. The airport looks very beautiful and very large, but with the way that we are growing, in about three or four years we are going to be full,” Tewolde said.Tewolde Gebremariam replaced Girma Wake in 2011.
Addis Ababa’s present international airport at Bole has a passenger capacity of about 19 million passengers annually.
Ethiopian Airlines is Africa’s largest airline by fleet size and revenue, however the country’s air infrastructure has not kept pace with its growth.
The international airport at Bole has handled fewer than a million passengers a year in the past, but that rose to 7 million in 2014. Passenger numbers are expected to continue increasing by about 18% a year.
The details of how the construction would be funded, nor who would build the new airport were not stated.
The Ethiopian Airlines
Ethiopia’s flag carrier is wholly owned by the country’s government. It was founded on 21 December 1945 and commenced operations on 8 April 1946, expanding to international flights in 1951. The firm became a share company in 1965 and changed its name from Ethiopian Air Lines to Ethiopian Airlines.
The airline has been a member of the International Air Transport Association since 1959 and of the African Airlines Association (AFRAA) since 1968. Ethiopian is a Star Alliance member, having joined in December 2011.
Its hub and headquarters are at Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, from where it serves a network of 125 passenger destinations 20 of them domestic and 44 freighter destinations. The airline has secondary hubs in Togo and Malawi. Ethiopian is Africa’s largest airline in terms of passengers carried, destinations served, fleet size, and revenue.
Ethiopian is also the world’s 4th largest airline by the number of countries served. The Ethiopian government reorganized the airline as a fully owned aviation holding group in July 2017.
Susafrica.com Monitoring reports and analyses news from TV, radio, web and print media around the world.
Be First to Comment