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The Ethiopian Airports Administration Enterprise (EAAE)
is to take over and upgrade 10 airstrips that were
used by Ethiopian Airlines. These airstrips
represent a fraction of the 84 airstrips that are
currently sitting idle as Ethiopian has
ceased landing DC-6 small aircrafts on them.
The improved airstrips will be able to accommodate
Fokke-50 planes that are now part of the fleet
operated by Ethiopian for local flights. They
were cleared by the area administration during the
reign of Haile Selaise.
“Three of the 10 airstrips will be given priority
for upgrading,” Tassew Tekle, public relations
service head at EAAE, told Fortune. “The
handover of these airstrips has already taken
place.”
The first airstrips that the Enterprise has taken
over are located in Jinka, in the Southern Nations
and Nationalities; Dembidolo in Oromia; and
Kombolcha in the Amhara regional states.
Jinka, located 493Km south of Addis Abeba, is known
for its banana products while recently
industrialising Kombolcha is found 376Km north of
the metropolis. Dembidolo which is found in western
Wollega Zone, is 935Km to the west of the capital.
“We were using the airstrips for commercial
flights,” said a management member of Ethiopian.
The Enterprise experts, who had left for Jinka two
weeks ago, have returned to Addis Abeba having
assessed the conditions in which the airstrip was
found and the suitability of the location of
airports. Similar assessments would be made in the
other two airstrips of Dembidolo and Kombolcha with
a team of experts in the coming two weeks, Tassew
told Fortune.
As soon as the assessments are fully completed, a
consultant engineer will be hired to undertake the
design works, supervision and monitoring of the
upgrading construction works of these airstrips.
“The cost needed for the construction of the
airports will be identified after the completion of
the design by the consulting firm,” a member of
Enterprise management told Fortune.
EAAE currently administers 14 airports, four of
which accommodate international flights. In addition
to the active airports, the Enterprise is
undertaking construction of airport terminals and
runways in Jijiga, 628Km east of Addis, found on the
border of Somalia; Gambela, 796Km west of the
capital along the border with Sudan; and Assosa,
1,411Km south west of Addis on the border of Kenya.
The 15.8 million Br Gambela Airport terminal
construction is currently underway by Gibril Geresu
Construction Company.
Akir Construction Plc, a local company, recently
completed a 45m wide and three kilometre long runway
for the Jijiga Airport at a cost of 62.6 million
Br. Akir is also constructing the airport
infrastructure at a cost of 86 million Br in Assosa.
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