{"id":321972,"date":"2026-01-12T14:50:51","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T06:50:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=321972"},"modified":"2026-01-12T14:50:51","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T06:50:51","slug":"ethiopia-construction-gets-underway-in-bishoftu-town-on-africas-biggest-airport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=321972","title":{"rendered":"Ethiopia: Construction gets underway in Bishoftu town on &#8216;Africa&#8217;s biggest airport&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/resizer\/v2\/KLVMMV6WQNLFZEAMREC2ILIEFQ.jpg?auth=061d8dab7fed89dbbaa4486c722ea27daaa12b8e84412579d4ffc5aaa6c3d964&amp;width=1080&amp;quality=80\" alt=\"Ethiopia begins $12.5 billion construction of 'Africa's biggest airport\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>ADDIS ABABA, Jan 12 (NNN-AFRICANEWS) &#8212; <strong>Construction has begun in the town of Bishoftu on what Ethiopia says will be Africa\u2019s biggest airport and the continent&#8217;s largest aviation infrastructure project.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed laid a ceremonial plaque on Saturday marking the start of work at the site located 45 kilometres south-east of the capital, Addis Ababa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When it reaches its full capacity in 2030, the travel hub will be able to handle some 110 million passengers a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At an expected cost of $12.5 billion dollars, the airport will feature four runways and have parking facilities for up to 270 aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That is more than four times the capacity of Ethiopia\u2019s current main airport, Bole, which can handle up to 25 million passengers annually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is, however, expected to reach saturation within three years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a post on X, Abiy said this &#8220;multi-airport strategy\u201d aims to future-proof Ethiopia&#8217;s role as Africa&#8217;s leading air transport gateway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He added that it will strengthen Ethiopian Airlines&#8217; global competitiveness, enhance African connectivity, and expand trade and tourism corridors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ethiopia hopes to attract foreign tourism despite the ongoing armed conflict in its two most populous regions &#8211; Amhara and Oromia &#8211; with Bishoftu located in the latter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The project includes a multi-lane motorway to link the new facility to the capital and a 38-kilometre high-speed railway which the premier says will reach speeds of up to 200 kph.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Funding sources for the Bishoftu hub includes the national carrier, Ethiopian Airlines, international financiers, and the African Development Bank. &#8212; NNN-AFRICANEWS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ADDIS ABABA, Jan 12 (NNN-AFRICANEWS) &#8212; Construction has begun in the town of Bishoftu on what Ethiopia says will be Africa\u2019s biggest airport and the continent&#8217;s largest aviation infrastructure project. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed laid a ceremonial plaque on Saturday marking the start of work at the site located 45 kilometres south-east of the capital, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[213],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321972"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=321972"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321972\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":321973,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321972\/revisions\/321973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=321972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=321972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=321972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}