http://www.africanews.com/2018/09/29/et ... ia-region/

Ethiopian Airlines plans to build a new mega airport with an annual capacity of 80 million pax in Bishoftu, about 48km southeast of Addis Ababa, according to state-affiliated media Fana Broadcasting Corporation on Tuesday

Ethiopian Airlines CEO Tewolde Gebremariam has been quoted as saying that consultation was already under way with the Oromia regional state to acquire the land needed for the airport and an accompanying hotel

Further details are sketchy though, this is definitely what Africa needs for a landmark aviation infrastructure project to unlock the enormous potential of the continent

Then this should be hardly surprising given the clout of ADD and ET in African aviation, as well as their growth ambitions

Kudos to ET

Surely interesting to note how soon the plan will materialize. Will it take decades' time to be done very slowly, or simply a couple of years with high efficiency?

So a location was chosen. But now to secure financing, hire an architect to create a design, a contractor to build the design, and set a schedule.

Until dirt is moved and a planned completion date is announced (we which is never met, but one must start somewhere), to this is a concept. One needed (EY needs new infrastructure).

Lightsaber

Check back in 10 years

Belt and Road funding! China will jump to financially colonize, ooops I mean fund big infrastructure projects in Africa.

Sounds like a great plan. I just hope it comes to fruition sooner rather than later. Perhaps ready in 10-15 years ?

The777Man

Yep, if Chinese step in the airport will be ready in a couple of years.

80 million passengers a year? That seems overly ambitious to me. ADD only had ~8.9 million passengers in 2016. Even if passenger traffic in ADD grows aggressively I don't ever see it reaching 80 million a year. Those are ORD numbers for crying out loud!

ET is going to need a new airport sooner than later! The current location on the southern side of town doesnt enable any growth anymore and with the bank system, two runways would be great. 80 mn passengers seems like overkill for the foreseeable future but in the long run? why not although ET is sub optimally located for intra-African connections and in the future with other airlines building up in by then developed markets that will become more of an issue. Given passengers won't have an alternative, 48 km out of the city centre is fine.

KentB27 wrote:

80 million passengers a year? That seems overly ambitious to me. ADD only had ~8.9 million passengers in 2016. Even if passenger traffic in ADD grows aggressively I don't ever see it reaching 80 million a year. Those are ORD numbers for crying out loud!

I suppose they would build it in phases, maybe with each new phase they would add another 20 million passengers?

This project has China fingerprints all over it, just look at the huge investment they have made in the African railways. They do like to plan ahead.

ET can become THE African airline, also thanks to a much better geographical position than South Africa. Of course Ethiopia needs money to build infrastructures, but the Chinese are arguably more than willing to contribute and strengthen their African presence.

Are they growing fleet and network than?

Why dont they expand Boris airport?
There is plenty room to expand southward

Its all the same nonsense. For 20 years they have been speaking about a new airport.

Anyhow they are soon opening new terminal at Bole doubling capacity to 20mil.

https://www.ezega.com/News/NewsDetails/ ... w-Terminal

sholmes wrote:

ET can become THE African airline, also thanks to a much better geographical position than South Africa. Of course Ethiopia needs money to build infrastructures, but the Chinese are arguably more than willing to contribute and strengthen their African presence.

I think many people misunderstand how the whole ET project is financed, and why the aircraft infrastructure is so far ahead of the airport infrastructure in Addis.

I hope Turkey can be involved instead of China.

Something to remember is that at the masterplanning stage, airport capacity relates to the maximum envisaged throughput which is being designed for, not the day one capacity. Airports may intend to realise a masterplan across ten to fifty years, so planning ahead is important.

Bole is well located for the city, but the land falls away steeply to the South, meaning expansion there isn't practical without moving billions of cubic meters of material. Additionally at 2,334m, Bole is one of the highest airports in the world, which presents technical challenges for ET - hence the fuel stops for various flights. Bishoftu (and Mojo) is significantly lower than Addis Adiba, meaning it should be possible to drop the airfield elevation by 300-500m, more comparable to JNB and DEN, and more compatible with ET's ULH ambitions.

PlymSpotter, you are perfectly right !

readytotaxi wrote:

This project has China fingerprints all over it, just look at the huge investment they have made in the African railways. They do like to plan ahead.

African minerals won't be exported to China by aircraft. There are lots of Chinese investments in railroads and ports.

Yeah....................what about the millions of starving ppl!

BrianWilkes wrote:

Yeah....................what about the millions of starving ppl!

Maybe the goal is to build the economy even more to provide opportunities to the people. I don't know how a country solves the poverty problem without address the economy.

sibibom wrote:

Belt and Road funding! China will jump to financially colonize, ooops I mean fund big infrastructure projects in Africa.

Sounds mutually beneficial to me- as opposed to the european version which was to solely exploit and extract

BrianWilkes wrote:

Yeah....................what about the millions of starving ppl!

The western world was building airports when a lot of its population was still impoverished. in case you didn't know Ethiopia is one of the fastest growing countries in the world and it needs to invest in its infrastructure to support this growth.

KentB27 wrote:

80 million passengers a year? That seems overly ambitious to me. ADD only had ~8.9 million passengers in 2016. Even if passenger traffic in ADD grows aggressively I don't ever see it reaching 80 million a year. Those are ORD numbers for crying out loud!

Obviously they don't want another BER kind of FUBAR planning.
IMU BER projected capacity was undersized before any earth was moved for its creation.

BrianWilkes wrote:

Yeah....................what about the millions of starving ppl!

Billions of (western) foreign aid haven't improved on that one tiny bit. quite the contrary.
Mostly due to aid being leveraged for resource control or for for self serving activities
like "helping" with expensive gimmicks that need expensive maintainance from
the "gifting" nation.

WIederling wrote:

BrianWilkes wrote:

Yeah....................what about the millions of starving ppl!

Billions of (western) foreign aid haven't improved on that one tiny bit. quite the contrary.
Mostly due to aid being leveraged for resource control or for for self serving activities
like "helping" with expensive gimmicks that need expensive maintainance from
the "gifting" nation.

Some 80% of Ethiopia's economy is still agrarian, however the trend is a reduction as the economy diversifies and grows. Whilst international aid is frequently an unsustainable sticking plaster, debt or investment unashamedly expects a consistent return. Using funds to develop infrastructure, skills and trade zones for further investment is a very sensible approach which will accelerate the move away from subsistence agriculture - wages are so low in Ethiopia that we are going to see a lot of skilled but menial work transfer from the traditional markets like Bangladesh, China and India. Strong international and domestic connectivity will be key here.

sibibom wrote:

Belt and Road funding! China will jump to financially colonize, ooops I mean fund big infrastructure projects in Africa.

They are already there.... ADD was refurbished within last 5yrs by Chinese Investment, unfortunately they realized soon enough ADD has no room to grow.
Plenty of land to develop SOUTH of present location.

KentB27 wrote:

80 million passengers a year? That seems overly ambitious to me. ADD only had ~8.9 million passengers in 2016. Even if passenger traffic in ADD grows aggressively I don't ever see it reaching 80 million a year. Those are ORD numbers for crying out loud!

And ORD really hasn't grown.

8.9 million passengers per year is 1996 DXB. DXB is now at 88 million passengers per year and there is little to no chance ORD will catch up to it.




So perhaps in 20 years it will need the capacity for 80 million passengers per year.


What I doubt is when this airport really starts construction. It needs all the ground support to get to it. The constraint on ET growth is ADD. So there is no question a new airport is required. If one is going to build a new airport, it should have enough land for 30 + years of growth. They won't build for 80 million on day 1. Think of the new IST, Daxing, or DEN airports; they are all meant to be HUGE, but starting off smaller and built up in phases as traffic justifies the expansion.

LIghtsaber

Great and near great cities throughout the developed and developing world are choked by lack of assigned space for buses, trains, and planes. even subways and bicycles. Any city expecting growth is wise to set aside, and zone for future infrastructure space. If space is set aside freeways and railways will be built in relationship to that future airport. Temporary buildings, farming and other land uses will be done with the understanding that at some time they will have to move.