![\"Ethiopian](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/ethiopian-airlines-african-bank-sign-agreement-e1768050341260-1024x515.jpg\")
Ethiopian Airlines Group and African Development Bank sign a mandate letter for financing Africa\u2019s largest aviation infrastructure project.<\/p>\nADDIS ABABA \u2013 Ethiopia has started building what will become Africa\u2019s largest airport in the town of Bishoftu, southeast of capital Addis Ababa, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced on Saturday (10 January).<\/p>\n
The massive aviation hub is expected to cost around $12.7 billion (about R209.4 million) and handle up to 110 million passengers annually when operating at full capacity. Construction is projected to take five years to complete.<\/p>\n
Record-breaking infrastructure project<\/p>\n
The Bishoftu facility, partly financed by national carrier Ethiopian Airlines, will replace the capital\u2019s Bole Airport, which currently handles up to 25 million passengers each year.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Ahmed described the initiative as \u201cthe largest aviation infrastructure project in Africa\u2019s history\u201d in a post on X.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis multi-airport strategy aims to future-proof Ethiopia\u2019s role as Africa\u2019s leading air transport gateway,\u201d he said, adding that the project would strengthen Ethiopian Airlines\u2019 global competitiveness, enhance African connectivity, and expand trade and tourism corridors.<\/p>\n
The development includes ambitious transport connections, featuring a multi-lane motorway linking the new facility to Addis Ababa and a 38-kilometre high-speed railway capable of reaching speeds up to 200 kilometres per hour.<\/p>\n
International funding secured<\/p>\n
The African Development Bank has earmarked $500 million\u00a0(R8.25 billion) towards the project, whilst Ethiopian authorities are in discussions to secure additional funding from the Asian Development Bank, European Investment Bank, and US Development Finance Corporation.<\/p>\n
Ethiopian Airlines Group and African Development Bank sign a mandate letter for financing Africa\u2019s largest aviation infrastructure project.<\/p>\n
Challenges and displacement<\/p>\n
The 35-square-kilometre airport site has already required the relocation of 2 500 farmers, who were rehoused last year at a cost of $350 million (R5.77 billion), according to Ethiopian Airlines CEO Mesfin Tasew Bekele.<\/p>\n
Ethiopia hopes to attract foreign tourism despite ongoing armed conflict in its two most populous regions \u2014 Amhara and Oromia \u2014 with Bishoftu located in the latter.<\/p>\n
The project forms part of Ethiopia\u2019s broader infrastructure development programme. <\/p>\n
The country, Africa\u2019s second-most populous nation with approximately 130 million inhabitants, officially inaugurated the continent\u2019s largest dam last year and has extensive urban renewal projects underway in Addis Ababa and other major cities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ADDIS ABABA \u2013 Ethiopia has started building what will become Africa\u2019s largest airport in the town of Bishoftu,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15285,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[63,3884,65,305,266],"class_list":{"0":"post-15284","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ethiopia","8":"tag-africa","9":"tag-air-travel","10":"tag-ethiopia","11":"tag-featured","12":"tag-travel"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}