The Ethiopian Minister of Transport, Workneh Gebeyehu confirmed the reports and said that Ethiopia is to break the ground for a new mega hub airport in the vicinity of Addis Ababa.

 

“The new mega hub will move the aviation industry in Ethiopia to a higher level. It will make Addis Ababa the aviation hub of Africa. The new airport will be the second mega project in the country (next to the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam)”, Workneh said.

 

A French consultancy firm called ADPI that undertakes the study on new mega hub airport construction was appointed by the Ethiopian Airport Enterprise for consultancy services.

 

CEO of the Ethiopian Airport Enterprise, Tewodros Dawit, said that ADPI had selected eight locations as possible construction sites and after carrying out a detailed study they proposed three different places namely Abusera locality near Akaki town, Alem Tena, near Modjo town and Tefki, a small town on Jimma road.

 

When completed the new mega airport which will be built in phases will have the capacity to handle 120 million passengers annually. It will consist of four runways and a number of passenger terminals.

 

The cost of the International airport in Ethiopia is still unknown.

 

ADPI is a French company specialized in airport architecture and engineering and is a fully owned subsidiary of Aéroports de Paris Group.

Source : constructionreviewonline.com