The images show designs for airports in China and South Korea, not Ethiopia
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on December 22, 2023 at 09:33
- 3 min read
- By Tolera FIKRU GEMTA, AFP Ethiopia
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A post published on Facebook on December 12, 2023, has been shared more than 80 times.
Part of the Amharic post reads: “Ethiopian Airlines announced that it is working to complete the construction of the new 5 billion dollar 'Ethiopian Airlines City' within four years.”
“Preparations are being made to launch an international bid to hire companies who will construct the airport,” the post adds.
It is accompanied by two images that seemingly show designs for the new airport.
Another similar post was also published on Facebook here.
Airline city
In 2020, Ethiopian Airlines announced a plan to build “Africa’s largest Airport” (archived here).
In early December 2023, local media reported that the carrier was ready to open international tenders for the construction of the $5 billion airport (archived here), to be completed in four years.
The official website of the United States International Trade Administration also reported this announcement (archived here).
However, the images attached to the posts are not designs for the planned airport.
China and South Korea
AFP Fact Check conducted reverse image searches for the two images and established that they show designs from airport projects in other countries.
The search results revealed that the first image (archived here) shows a design for a “Southern Airport City” in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province in southern China.
This plan for a mixed-use district by UK-based architectural firm Woods Bagot won a competition in 2012 (archived here).
Search results for the second image (archived here) found that it shows a design for South Korea’s Incheon International Airport, Terminal 2.
The design (archived here) was created by a consortium of architects called Heerim-Mooyoung-Gensler-Yungdo (HMGY) in 2013.
Construction of this terminal began in 2013 and it opened for service in 2018 (archived here). The final phase of its construction is expected to be completed by 2025.
Ethiopian Airlines has not yet officially disclosed any designs related to the planned new airport.
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