Ethiopian Airlines appoints KPMG to lead the financing for Bishoftu Mega-Airport

Ethiopian Airlines Group has appointed KPMG as financial adviser for its Bishoftu International Airport project, a multi‑billion‑dollar initiative aimed at creating one of Africa’s largest aviation hubs.

KPMG International Limited, British multinational professional services network, will work alongside the African Development Bank, serving as mandated lead arranger along with Dar Al‑Handasah Consultants, which acts as technical adviser. The airline said a legal adviser is expected to be appointed shortly to complete the advisory team.

The network is part of the world’s “Big Four” accounting and advisory firms, alongside Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young which provides audit, tax, advisory, and financial consulting services to governments, corporations, and institutions across sectors.

The project’s financing structure is planned as a ring‑fenced, limited‑recourse arrangement, with revenues channeled into a dedicated offshore account governed by a lender-approved cashflow waterfall. Officials said the use of blended finance will channel concessional capital to reduce risk for private investors, while guarantees from the AfDB and other multilateral lenders are expected to ease borrowing costs.

The debt-to-equity ratio is projected at 70 to 30. Ethiopian Airlines said financing mobilization has already begun, with 59 financial institutions engaged, 42 signing non‑disclosure agreements, and 12 submitting letters of interest in addition to the 4.8 billion US dollars that had been pledged towards the project and announced by Finance Minister Ahmed Shide last year.

Alongside the infrastructure, the airport development includes a resettlement and livelihood restoration programme which affected households are being organized into cooperatives to participate in new businesses, with an estimated cost of 350 million US dollars along with land acquisition and resettlement totaling the costs to date roughly 741 million US dollars.

The lump-sum turnkey (LSTK) component is valued at 8 billion US dollars, contributing to a total project estimate of 12.5 billion US dollars while the early works, awarded to three contractors for 620 million US dollars, are expected to be completed by December 2026.

Dar Al‑Handasah Consultants has submitted a comprehensive package including the master plan, financial feasibility report, environmental and social assessments, geotechnical investigations, concept designs for terminal, airside and landside infrastructure, cargo and MRO facilities, transport links to Bole International Airport, fuel farm, utilities, cost estimates, and packaging structure. A consortium of international firms, including Zaha Hadid Architects, is contributing to terminal and infrastructure design.

Ethiopian Airlines said Bole International Airport, which currently handles around 25 million passengers annually, is facing congestion due to the growth of Africa’s largest carrier and the new airport is intended to strengthen Ethiopia’s position as a continental aviation hub, integrating passenger, cargo, and logistics operations while addressing social and economic participation for affected communities.

The airport, located roughly forty kilometres southeast of Addis Ababa, is being constructed in phases and it is expected to handle up to 110 million passengers annually, more than four times the airline’s current capacity, and accommodate extensive cargo operations across multiple runways. It will also include an offsite rail link connecting Bole International Airport and Bishoftu Mega‑Airport, with an estimated cost of 954 million US dollars.

Once Bishoftu Mega‑Airport becomes operational, Ethiopian Airlines plans to restrict Bole International to domestic flights, freeing capacity for the new hub to manage international operations.