Ethiopian Airlines, African Development Bank partner to build $7.8bn airport

Ethiopian Airlines Group and the African Development Bank will partner to build a new airport that’s estimated to cost $7.8 billion and is set to be Africa’s largest.

The parties signed a letter of intent for the partnership to construct the facility in the East African nation on Friday, the finance ministry said in a statement Saturday, without disclosing the amount that the AfDB will provide for the project.

The new airport, known as Bishoftu, will be near the capital, Addis Ababa. Authorities have secured the location and are working on planning new homes at another site for farmers who were on the land, state-owned Ethiopian Airlines Group Chief Executive Officer Mesfin Tasew said in November.

Bishoftu will enable Ethiopia to increase its annual passenger capacity from 17 million now to more than 60 million by 2040.

The AfDB has invested $1.2 billion in Ethiopia, Finance Minister Ahmed Shide said in the statement.

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Akinwumi Adesina, AfDB president expressed the bank’s “full commitment” to supporting the airport and praised Ethiopia for an economic growth rate of more than eight in 2024.

The airport will be built near Bishoftu, about 20km southeast of Addis Ababa.

When finished around 2040, it will handle 60 million passengers a year, making Ethiopia northeast Africa’s main aviation hub.

Now, Addis Ababa is served by Bole International Airport, opened in 1962, and recently expanded by China Communications.

It has an annual capacity of around 22 million passengers, but a projected 6% annual increase in tourists means that capacity will soon be reached.

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha is the Aviation Correspondent at BusinessDay Media Limited, publishers of BusinessDay Newspapers. She is also the Deputy Editor, BusinessDay Weekender Magazine, the Saturday Weekend edition of BusinessDay. She holds a BSC in Mass Communication from the prestigious University of Nigeria, Nsukka and a Masters degree in Marketing at the University of Lagos. As the lead writer on the aviation desk, Ifeoma is responsible and in charge of the three weekly aviation and travel pages in BusinessDay and BDSunday. She also overseas and edits all pages of BusinessDay Saturday Weekender. She has written various investigative, features and news stories in aviation and business related issues and has been severally nominated for award in the category of Aviation Writer of the Year by the Nigeria Media Nite-Out awards; one of the Nigeria’s most prestigious media awards ceremonies. Ifeoma is a one-time winner of the prestigious Nigeria Media Merit Award under the 'Aviation Writer of the Year' Category. She is the 2025 Eloy Award winner under the Print Media Journalist category. She has undergone several journalism trainings by various prestigious organisations. Ifeoma is also a fellow of the Female Reporters Leadership Fellowship of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism.