An experiment was conducted to evaluate genetic variability and association of characters of hermaphrodite papaya genotypes for further breeding improvement. Sixteen hermaphrodite papaya genotypes were evaluated at Melkassa Agricultural Research Centre in a randomized complete block design experiment with two replicates from 2011 to 2013. Based on the analysis, the genotypes showed variation in their performances. High heritability coupled with high genetic advance recorded for fruit weight (94, 44.75) followed by inter-node length (86, 37.3), fruit length (94, 29.25), and total number of fruit per plant (75, 30.94). Yield per plant exhibited highly significant positive correlation with inter-node length (0.7, 0.58), fruit length (0.49, 0.46) and fruit diameter (0.41, 0.44) both genotypic and phenotypic levels respectively. Based on path coefficient analysis, number of fruits per plant had the highest direct effect (1.05) on fruit yield per plant followed by fruit length (0.56), fruit diameter (0.49) and fruit weight (0.45). The overall results of this study indicated number of fruits, fruit length, fruit diameter, fruit weight and inter-node length exhibited high variation, heritability and genetic advance, and positive direct path coefficient effect on fruit yield per plant. Hence, these traits can be used as principal selection criteria for papaya fruit yield improvement.