Aviation This Week – February Edition 3

Aviation news featured on this week’s edition are topical happenings relevant to Ghana’s aviation space from February 15- 20, 2021.

Passion Air Announces Daily Flights to Takoradi

Passion Air on Thursday, February 18, 2021 announced that it will soon commence daily flights from Accra to Takoradi starting February 27, 2021. The fare for the route will start at GH199 for one-way.

Qatar Airways In-flight Entertainment System to go Contactless

As part of efforts to eliminate contact surfaces as passengers embark on their journeys, Qatar Airways has announced that its passengers on-board its Airbus A350 will soon be able to control its In-flight Entertainment (IFE) System with their mobile phones. By this, passengers will have to do away with touching the IFE screen with their hands and rather scan a QR Code to have full control of the system.

At the moment, the airline predominantly operates a Boeing 787 Dreamliner to Ghana but it plans of getting this new feature on such fleet soon.

Air Côte D’Ivoire Takes Delivery of Airbus A320neo

Air Côte D’Ivoire on Thursday, February 18, 2021 took a delivery of its first Airbus A320 neo to augment its fleet of four De Havilland DHC-8 Dash 8 turboprops, three Airbus A319, and two Airbus A320ceos.

The addition makes the carrier the first to operate such an aircraft in the West African sub-region.

According to the airline, which operates flights between Abidjan and Accra, its initial plan is to operate the aircraft on its routes between Abidjan and Cameroon, Gabon and Senegal.

16 Airlines Show Commitment to Ensure Delivery of COVID-19 Vaccines

Some sixteen airlines have partnered UNICEF to ensure delivery of COVID-19 vaccines across the globe under the COVAX Facility. Emirates, Ethiopian, Qatar, Air France-KLM, Brussels, among others, are some of the airlines that have pledged their commitment to support this initiative dubbed “UNICEF Humanitarian Initiative”.

As a sign of goodwill, the airlines have promised to prioritize the transportation of the vaccines over other freight.

The Covax Facility is a program put together by WHO, Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, and others to ensure the equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines to all around the world.

Ghana’s COVID-19 Airport Test and Matters Arising

Over the week, some government officials in Ghana have come under intense pressure over the contractual agreement between the country and Frontier Healthcare Services Limited, managers of the COVID-19 testing center at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA).

For what seems to be an agreement which some former ministers of state have denied knowledge of full contractual details, some aviation experts believe the reputation of KIA’s testing regime is at state if such agreements are shrouded in secrecy.

Qatar Extends Free Travel for Healthcare Workers

Qatar Airways says it has extended its free flight offer for healthcare workers to any destination of their choice from now till end of March, 2022. The offer provides an opportunity for healthcare workers to travel with one companion of their choice by paying only for airport taxes.

The airline’s extension of this offer gives an opportunity to healthcare workers who could not take advantage of this offer when it was first introduced in May 2020 for 100, 000 passengers. For now, the window is opened for booking from now till September 30, 2021 for travels before March 31, 2022.

Egyptair with the Discounts

Egyptair says it is offering 30% and 25% discounts to all passengers flying from Copenhagen (Denmark) and Amsterdam (Netherlands) to any of its operational destinations respectively.

Passengers have from now until 28 February, 2021 to make bookings for travels before May 31, 2021 for travels from Amsterdam and March 28, 2021 for travels from Copenhagen also.

Authored

Mark Ofosu || Twitter: M__ofosu