Earlier this year, on 10 January 2026, a landmark project in African civil aviation moved forward with a groundbreaking ceremony. It officially marked the commencement of construction of Ethiopia’s Bishoftu International Airport BIA), which will serve the capital, Addis Ababa, and act as the country’s new global gateway.

The project is valued at approximately USD12.5 billion, and the airport will become the largest in Africa once finished, replacing the existing Bole Airport (ADD) as Ethiopia’s primary long‑haul hub. ADD is currently the third busiest airport on the continent behind Johannesburg’s OR Tambo (JNB) and Egypt’s Cairo International (CAI), which has a significant lead with 31.14 million passengers in 2025.

BIA is about 45km southeast of Addis Ababa, much farther away than ADD, which is within the city limits. The construction of a new country gateway is an immensely significant project for government-owned Ethiopian Airlines Group (EAG). The carrier has ambitions for a global aviation hub like its Middle East neighbors, and BIA will act as a pillar of the group’s long-term growth strategy. ADD is too congested and capacity constrained to ever fulfill its aims to scale operations. It is expected to reach its expanded annual capacity of 25 million passengers soon.

While Ethiopia is not using a traditional public-private partnership (PPP) concession model for the new hub—such as airport BOT concessions seen in India or Brazil—its project‑finance SPV (special purpose vehicle) has multi‑lender participation. There is significant private capital involved, risk will be shared between public and private actors, and debt will sit in the SPV, not on government books.

Below, airportIR looks at what is known so far about how the financing is being structured, and where the private-sector opportunities lie.

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