Some 30 miles southeast of Addis Ababa, construction has begun on what Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali has called “the largest aviation infrastructure project in the history of Africa.” The Bishoftu International Airport, a $12.5 billion mega-project launched in January, aims to fundamentally reroute African air travel.
Currently, flights between African cities frequently require layovers in London, Paris, or Dubai — a colonial-era legacy that persists in the continent’s aviation network. Bishoftu International is designed to change that equation. Scheduled to open in 2030, the airport will feature two runways and an initial capacity of 60 million passengers annually, with a potential expansion to 110 million — a figure that would surpass Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson, currently the world’s busiest airport.
The project reflects Ethiopia’s ambition, through Ethiopian Airlines, to position itself as the undisputed hub of African aviation. If successful, it could shift billions of dollars in transit revenue away from European and Gulf hubs and toward the continent itself.
