Ethiopian Airlines Group successfully inaugurated a new passenger terminal at its hub Addis Ababa Bole International Airport with emphasis on Bio Security and Bio Safety measures.
The new terminal has check-in hall with sixty check-in counters, thirty self-check-in kiosks, ten self-bag drop/SBD/, sixteen immigration counters with more e-gate provisions, sixteen central security screening areas for departing passengers are the new faces of the airport. In addition, it has three contact gates for wide body aircraft along with ten remote contact gates with people mover – travellator, escalator, and panoramic lifts. It will house thirty-two arrival immigration counters with eight e-gate provisions at the mezzanine floor level.
The US$350 million new terminal expansion includes new duty-free shops, restaurants, escalators and many other accommodations to improve travelers’ comfort.
The expansion includes 74,000 meters of space and is projected to increase the capacity of the airport to be able to handle up to 25 million travelers each year. Bole International Airport has now exceeded Johannesburg’s O.R. Tambo International Airport as the largest capacity airport in Africa.
“I am very pleased to witness the realization of a brand-new terminal at our Hub,” said Tewolde GebreMariam, Group CEO of Ethiopian Airlines. “While Addis Ababa Bole International Airport has overtaken Dubai to become the largest gateway to Africa, the new terminal will play a key role in cementing that position. What makes the new terminal unique is that it’s the first terminal in the world to be completed after COVID-19. It was designed, not re-purposed, with Bio safety and Bio security in mind. I’m sure our esteemed customers will highly appreciate that.”
Aviation infrastructure expansion is one of the core pillars of Ethiopian’s Vision 2025. Ethiopian is continuously working on expanding airport facilities. The features of the new airport play a key role in protecting passengers’ and employees’ safety as airport experience becomes contactless.
Attracting Chinese Tourists To Africa
Ethiopia sees the terminal expansion project as crucial to meeting the needs of the large numbers of Chinese tourists it wants to attract. Ethiopia recorded over $200 million in revenue from Chinese tourists that visited the country in 2019. China is the third largest source of tourists visiting Ethiopia, after the United States and Britain.
Other African countries also hope to improve on the relatively low number of Chinese visitors. Kenya, the third-largest tourism-driven economy in sub-Saharan Africa, is an example. Tourism contributes $7.9 billion, or about 8.8 percent, to the country’s GDP. According to Xinhua News Agency, at least 230,500 Chinese nationals visited Kenya in 2018. The number is a significant surge from 192,300 in 2017 and 131,900 in 2016. However, the country, which depends on Addis Ababa’s airport dubbed “East Gate of Africa,” hopes to attract Chinese tourists every year. The revenues of its tourism sector directly and indirectly supported 1.1 million Kenyan people according to the World Travel and Tourism Council.
Ethiopian Airlines has started facilitating a visa hub service to 35 African countries, helping Chinese and other foreigners to directly travel to Ethiopia and beyond without the need to transit through Beijing, where most African countries’ embassies are located.
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