Ministry Of Aviation, Qatar Airways Sign Agreement

The Ministry of Aviation has signed an agreement with one of the world's fastest-growing airlines, Qatar Airways, which is set to enter the Ghanaian aviation market.

Minister of Aviation, Cecilia Dapaah made this known yesterday in Accra during the second breakfast meeting for aviation stakeholders organized by Aviation Ghana under the theme: 'Creation of An Aviation Hub: The Role of Airlines.'

The breakfast meeting would bring stakeholders together to discuss pertinent issues.

Ms Dapaah, who shared highlights of the achievements of the Ministry after the last breakfast meeting held in 2017, said a lot of developments were taking place in the sector which would make Ghana an aviation hub in the sub-region.

She said since last year, the Ministry has been able to sign agreement with Qatar Airways, which wants to enter the domestic market.

Air Namibia which exited Ghana in 2014 reportedly due to low tariffs, has expressed interest in making a comeback, she added.

It would be recalled that Air Namibia, which began operations in Accra in November 2009, exited the country in June 2014.

Air Namibia was expected to give South African Airways competition on the Southern Africa route, but this did not materialize.

The minister indicated that some issues raised by the board of airlines during last year's engagement at the breakfast series were being addressed.

The issues, she said, included the proposed removal of the import duties on aircraft spare parts, waiver of airport tariffs for airline employees and the negative impact of harmattan on air navigation services.

According to her, the issue of the removal of import duties on aircraft spare parts which was raised has been forwarded to the Minister of Finance for “fair consideration.”

Projects
She disclosed that significant progress were being made on some major airport projects across the country.

Key among them is the work on the Terminal 3 of the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) in Accra, which is said to be 87 percent complete and shall meet its completion deadline of April 29, 2018.

Challenge
That notwithstanding, she pointed out that there was problem with the country's domestic airline sector.

The minister said “we now have a problem with our domestic airlines provision because ours is now saddled with the huge responsibility of meeting the demands and I am sure it is also affecting the big guys.”

However, Director-General of Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), Simon Allotey said major investments were being made to improve air navigation services in Ghana.

He said the installation of modern air navigation systems across the various airports in Ghana was ongoing.