Flights between African cities often require layovers outside the continent — routing through London, Paris, or Dubai. A massive infrastructure project in Ethiopia aims to change that paradigm entirely.
About 30 miles southeast of Addis Ababa, construction began in January on what Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali has described as “the largest aviation infrastructure project in the history of Africa.” The new Bishoftu International Airport, budgeted at $12.5 billion, is expected to open in 2030 with two runways and a capacity of 60 million passengers per year. Plans envision an eventual expansion to 110 million passengers — which would surpass Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson, currently the busiest airport in the world.
If realized, Bishoftu International could become the central hub for intra-African travel, reducing the absurd routing that has long plagued the continent and potentially transforming Ethiopia into the aviation crossroads of an emerging market of over a billion people.
