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Domestic Airlines Expected To Resume Today

Business & Finance Domestic Airlines Expected To Resume Today
MAY 1, 2020 LISTEN

Domestic airline operators are set to resume flights from Accra to various destinations, starting today, Friday, May 1, 2020.

It follows the completion of a disinfection exercise carried out at the various airports in Accra, Tamale, Kumasi and Takoradi.

A statement from the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) to Citi Business News said the Authority together with the Ghana Airports Company Limited and the Ghana Health Service have instituted measures to ensure smooth operations.

International and domestic flights were grounded when the President closed the country's borders by invoking the Restriction of movement Act, from March 30 to April 20, 2020, as part of efforts to curtail the spread of the coronavirus in Ghana.

The GCAA however says it will review laid down protocols where necessary and introduce improved procedures to enhance the measures to fight the coronavirus and its effect on the aviation sector.

Meanwhile, domestic airline operators; Passion Air and Africa World Airlines have since announced flight schedules to and from Accra, Kumasi and Tamale effective today.

Per the schedule, they will operate at least twelve domestic flights from today to Sunday [May 3, 2020].

The flights are to begin from 10:30 am through to 5:00 pm for the first three days.

Airports likely to be opened for domestic flights this weekend

After barely a month of shutting down the airports to commercial flights as part of the directives implemented to help stop the spread of the coronavirus infection (COVID-19), the Aviation Minister, Kofi Adda hinted that domestic flights may resume this weekend.

He stated that the Ghana Airport Company Limited has put in place safety measures at all airports in the country.

He was speaking to the media during a disinfection exercise at the Kotoka International Airport by waste management company, Zoomlion Ghana Limited.

“The airport company, led by the port health officials would make sure that all the things that need to be installed to support the implementation of the protocol would take place. All the hand washing devices, sanitizers, and anything that needs to be done would be made available. And that would be checked by the airport company and port health officials to ensure that all that is in place before we start operating. We are deliberately doing this because we want to start domestic flights first.”

“In all of Africa, we are the only country that closed down the airport and is about to begin so we have to make sure that we do it well and right so we can lead the way and set the example for other African countries to follow. Perhaps getting towards the weekend, we'll now begin the domestic flights,” he noted.

---citinewsroom

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