Ethiopian Airlines to build large cargo terminal

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - A German company, ICM Airport Technics, has been awarded the turnkey project for the construction of an Ethiopian Airlines cargo warehouse that has a capacity to store 1.2 million tonnes per annum, for an undisclosed sum.

The company, which  provides material systems for airports, and Ethiopian Airlines are negotiating over finances before signing the contract, according to a source close to the matter who wanted to remain anonymous.

“The new warehouse will mean no capacity shortage, which translates to no complaints and the best of service,” Tewolde Gebremariam, CEO of Ethiopian said during a celebration for the arrival of the first of six B777F aircraft it had ordered, last week.

ICM, had previously constructed the Airlines’ cargo terminal along the ring road from Bole to St. Micheal church in 2005 on 14,000sqm space for 35 million dollars. Currently this terminal has a warehouse which can hold 350,000tns of cargo per annum and has a cold storage room with a space of 2000sqm that can go as low as minus 23 degrees Celsius.

Although at the time this was considered to be big, Ethiopia’s increasing export and import activity has required bigger storage space.

The amount of cargo being hauled by Ethiopian Airlines had increased from 42,000tns to 110,000tns from 2006 to 2011. Read more