Eagle Atlantic Airlines begins operations amid challenges

This follows the unwillingness of some of the member countries to grant the airline licences  for entry into their respective capitals.

The situation has forced Eagle Atlantic, a wholly-owned Ghanaian airline, to start with operations to Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal, Liberia and Sierra Leone, while it continues to work at getting access into the other countries.

Its maiden flight is scheduled for Monday, October 21 from Accra to the Ivorian capital of Abidjan in the morning and later to Monrovia, Liberia.

The General Manager (GM) of the airline, Mr Henry Essilfie, disclosed these in an interview.

'We wanted to commence flights into the entire west coast but airline operation is not like a taxi business where you can start driving into anywhere. You need to be given permission before you can enter and that is what we are working at,' Mr Essilfie told the Daily Graphic.

'If the remaining countries give us the permit today, we will start operations there tomorrow,' he added.

Eagle Atlantic, which was registered in 2007 to operate airline services, was granted an operational licence by the Ghana Civil Authority (GCAA) earlier this year to undertake international and regional carrier services, including cargo freighting.

Its aim, according to the GM, is to interconnect countries in the west coast through regular flights to those destinations.

That, it believed, would help reduce the inconveniences that travellers, mostly traders, prospective investors and the business community often went through trying to travel within.

This, however, requires that the airlines get permits from all the countries in the sub-region, something its GM said was becoming a challenge.

'It has not been smooth; there've been challenges and delays here and there but we just hope that we will be given the opportunity to serve the west coast as we want,' Mr Essilfie said.

He mentioned that the Aviation Authority, which regulates the local industry, and the Ministry of Transport were aware of the airlines' frustrations in accessing the flying permits.

'Fortunately, those two institutions are doing everything possible to get us the permits,' he said but admitted that the situation had slowed the airline's growth strategy.

'There is nothing we can do at the moment. We just have to continue asking of it and hope that the way will be cleared soon,' he added.

Eagle Atlantic currently owns three aircraft - two 147-seater MD82 and one 160-seater MD83 - which it will use to debut its services next mont

By Maxwell Adombila Akalaare/Daily Graphic/Ghana