Ethiopian Airlines is dropping $12.5 billion on a massive new airport that should handle 110 million people yearly when it's done, and the CEO Mesfin Tasew Bekele says a Chinese bank already threw in $500 million, with the African Development Bank matching that. The current Addis Ababa airport is basically cooked after six decades, and congestion is about to hit hard as the airline keeps growing at double-digit rates every year.
The new spot sits about 40 kilometers outside the capital, and phase one will handle 60 million passengers before they scale up. Bekele pointed out that the African Continental Free Trade Area needs solid air transport to actually work since most high-value goods on the continent move by plane, but infrastructure investment has been trash across Africa. The project costs $8.6 billion just for construction, but land acquisition and resettlement push the total up to $12.5 billion.
The new spot sits about 40 kilometers outside the capital, and phase one will handle 60 million passengers before they scale up. Bekele pointed out that the African Continental Free Trade Area needs solid air transport to actually work since most high-value goods on the continent move by plane, but infrastructure investment has been trash across Africa. The project costs $8.6 billion just for construction, but land acquisition and resettlement push the total up to $12.5 billion.
