The Airports Enterprise of Ethiopia announced the completion of the first phase of the Apron Expansion Project at the Addis Ababa Bole International Airport. The airport will now be able to park ten additional aircraft.
The newly constructed Apron began service as of the 24th of January allowing more comfortable parking service for large aircraft according to Wondim Teklu, Head of Public Relations and Communications for the Airports Enterprise.
The 1.1 billion birr project being carried out by the China Road and Bridge Corporation was expected to be fully completed within 10 months from December of last but experienced some delays associated with cement shortages explained Wondim.The second phase of the project will allow 15 more additional large aircraft to park increasing the parking capacity of Bole International Airport to a total of 44 large airplanes.
It is expected that the second phase will be completed in the beginning of 2013.
The expansion project was necessitated by the increasing number of flights to Addis Ababa Bole Airport and corresponding growth in passenger numbers according to Wondim.
The airport will also enhance its capacity to host considerably large aircraft like the Boeing 787 Dreamliner with the completion of the expansion project.
The takeoff and landing time of aircraft at Bole Airport will also be significantly reduced by the newly constructed taxiways added Wondim.
The Ethiopian Airports Enterprise has upgraded the old runway and constructed a new runaway in addition to the work down on the new airport.
Source: Ethiopian Press Agency
