Ethiopia’s Plan of Building Africa’s Biggest Airport Face Shortage of Funding

ETHIOPIA’S infrastructure Ethiopia’s Plan of Building Africa’s Biggest Airport Face Shortage of Fundingbinge shows no signs of slowing down, with plans being made to build a $4 billion second international airport in the Addis Ababa area, one that could serve as many as 120 million passengers per year when it opens in about a decade’s time.

But a new report by risk analysts PGI Intelligence warns that the airport mega-project is at risk of delays due to challenges securing finance, while the huge costs entailed threaten to worsen foreign exchange shortages in the coming years.

The planned airport would make it Africa’s biggest airport by far, and even larger than London’s Heathrow, which handled 73.4 million passengers last year, with a capacity of 90 million. Africa’s busiest airport is O.R. Tambo International Airport near Johannesburg, South Africa; about 18 million passengers passed through its terminals last year and ongoing expansion work will raise capacity to 28 million.

The planned giant airport in Ethiopia is set to be one of the country’s most ambitious projects, surpassed only by the $4.8 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and demonstrates the government’s ongoing commitment to state-led development through investment in huge infrastructure projects.

ARAABINEWS.COM