A world-class cargo terminal at Addis Ababa International Airport is to be built by Ethiopia Airlines to support its global carriers. This USD 98 million project is to be designed by the German company, namely Unitechnik Group.
According to Unitechnik, the project will cover an area equal to the size of five football grounds, and it will able to handle 600,000 tonnes of freight every year. This capacity is more than four times the capacity of the existing facility, which was built by the same company.
There is future planning of expanding the total freight capacity up to 1.2 million tonnes a year, making it one of the biggest in the world. The local firm Varnero Construction will undertake the contracting work of the project.
The funding of the project was secured by Ethiopia Airlines from KfW IPEX-Bank, which provides finance to the German export industry, and Agence Francaise de Development, which provide loans to the African development project.
The terminal’s design will include an automated high ray racking system for elevating transfer vehicles to a maximum speed of loading and unloading. Moreover, with the large cool storage area, there will be substantial ease of transporting perishable goods such as meat, flowers, vegetables, and other frozen commodities around the world.
