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.”

-REUTERS