BRICS state to build ‘Africa’s largest airport’
Ethiopia will build Africa’s largest airport, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed told the country's parliament on Thursday. The new hub, in the country’s capital of Addis Ababa, will be designed to handle nearly 130 million passengers annually – a significant increase from the city's current airport capacity of 25 million.
The prime minister also confirmed that the BRICS state's flagship Ethiopian Airlines (EA) has ordered 124 new airplanes as part of its ongoing modernization and fleet expansion.
EA recently won ‘Best Airline in Africa’ at the 2025 APEX Passenger Choice Awards, a prize that company CEO Mesfin Tasew has claimed “validates our commitment to excellence.”
The airline is playing an increasingly important role in connecting the continent's emerging hubs, introducing the first Airbus A350-1000 to Africa, in line with plans to resume flights to Monrovia, Liberia, after a 14-year pause.
In recent weeks, EA has also launched a new daily route from Addis Ababa to Port Sudan, expanding its African network to 66 destinations.
The airline aims to expand its fleet to 270 aircraft and connect with over 200 airports globally in the next 12 years.
Speaking at the Tatarstan-Ethiopia roundtable as part of the BRICS Summit on October 24, Michale Endale, the airline’s area manager, said the company aims to introduce more routes from Russian regional airports in the near future. The deputy prime minister of Tatarstan, Oleg Korobchenko, suggested Kazan Airport as a potential secondary hub for Ethiopian Airlines in Russia.
