Jan 28, 2019: Ethiopian Airlines has inaugurated the terminal expansion of Addis Ababa Bole International Airport and Ethiopian Skylight Hotel, in the presence of prime minister Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia. The passenger terminal expansion project funded by Ethiopia Airlines was built at a cost of $363 million on 74,000 square metres of land.

The prime minister urged other Ethiopian companies to learn from the best experiences and working culture of Ethiopian Airlines employees, which managed to establish and manage professionally the biggest aviation group in the continent. He also advised Ethiopia Airlines management to establish the best aviation university in the continent expanding on its current aviation training college.

Ethiopian Cargo with its warehouses both at terminal one and two has built the largest capacity storing up to 1,000,000 tonnes of dry and perishable goods in Africa. The terminal two expansion project will now have the latest baggage handling system (BHS) technology with tilting tray sorter system (TTS).

Tripling its capacity, the expansion will now allow Bole to handle 22 million passengers annually. Speaking at the event, Ahmed suggested that for a country with over 100 million population, it would be good to expand even more the passengers’ handling capacity of the airport to up to 100 million passengers.

The hotel project worth $65 million is located five minutes from the airport. Built on 40,000 square metres land, the hotel has 373 rooms, four restaurants, banquet hall to accommodate 2,000 guests, among other facilities.