By David Shepardson
ARLINGTON, Virginia April 20 (Reuters) - Africa's largest carrier Ethiopian Airlines on Monday said it is buying six additional Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner jets as it looks to expand its long-haul flights across Africa and to the U.S., Europe and Asia.
Ethiopian Airlines Group CEO Mesfin Tasew told Reuters after a signing ceremony at Boeing's headquarters near Washington it was converting six options to firm orders after previously ordering 20 new 787s, including nine in January.
Tasew
said the company would begin receiving the 26 787s in 2028.
"There are mature routes we need," he said, including some in Africa where Ethiopian Airlines would like to fly larger airplanes. "There are routes that we wanted to fly, but we couldn't do because of shortage of airplanes - like Australia."
The ceremony was attended by members of the Trump administration, who have made boosting U.S. exports of Boeing planes a priority.
Tasew also discussed with U.S. officials in Washington his company's $12.5 billion construction project that is expected to be Africa's biggest airport when completed in 2030 in the town of Bishoftu.
"The new airport will have a capacity of 60 million passengers with all the latest ultramodern facilities," Tasew said. "We want this airport to be the Dubai of Africa, or the Istanbul of Africa."
The state-owned airline got the contract to design the four-runway airport in the town located around 45 km (28 miles) southeast of Addis Ababa. Construction commenced in January.
The new facility will have more than four times the capacity of Ethiopia's current main airport, which will reach its limits on existing traffic in the next two to three years.
Lenders include the African Development Bank, which in August said it would lend $500 million and lead efforts to raise $8.7 billion.
"We are very happy with the response from U.S. financial institutions," Tasew said. "Several of them have expressed interest to participate."
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chris Reese and Thomas Derpinghaus)
