Govt intensifies moves to regain direct flight route to the U.S

Citi Business News has gathered that government has commenced moves with the U.S Federal Aviation Administration to regain the FAA Category One status which will allow Ghana to fly its national carrier directly to the United States after the airline is inaugurated.

Ghana lost its prestigious category one status some years after failing to meet some key safety requirements of the FAA.

But speaking to Citi Business News, the Director General of the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority Simon Allotey disclosed that a consultant has been hired to address the findings raised by the FAA after which the Ministry of Aviation will assess the document.

“What we are doing to attain the Cat One status is that the government represented by the Ministry of Aviation a and the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority are working closely with the U.S Federal Aviation Administration and some consultants to address all the findings which the FAA noted when they did a technical review of Ghana's safety oversight system,” he said.

As part of efforts aimed at complementing government's efforts, Mr. Allotey stated that the GCAA has also embarked on series in-house activities to improve security at the airport ahead of the U.S FAA team visiting Ghana.

“So currently we also have an in house team which has put up a corrective action plan to address these deficiencies and some of them involve extensive training of safety personnel, creating new positions in our civil aviation structure to make sure that certain safety oversight aspects are attended to,” he said.

He stated that it is important to meet the timeline as government works on establishing the new national airline.

He observed that the GCAA will also include a regulatory framework to its activities, which will further enhance security and provide guidance on enforcing it.

“So once all these are complied with, we are doing additional regulatory manual as well, then we will get our Ghanaian carriers, the US FAA will also do a safety assessment on the operator itself and they will look at our aviation security systems,” he said.

–
By: Lawrence Segbefia/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana