Editorial

Ghana Airways reborn

It is now official that Ghana has joined other African countries to run international airlines.

Ghana signed a provisional order for three Boeing long-haul 787 Dreamliner jets on Tuesday at the Dubai Airshow as part of efforts to revive the collapsed flag carrier of the country.

“We need to be able to ferry Ghanaians to Europe, North America and Asia for business. We need to ferry them from those places back to Ghana to do business and enjoy” the Minister of Aviation, Joseph Kofi Adda, was quoted as saying.

The plan for the revival of the collapsed airline is for the country to start flying the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners by early 2020 with flights to Europe, North America and Asia, while servicing routes within Africa with up to six smaller Dash 8-400 aircrafts, which were also provisionally ordered from De Havilland of Canada.

According to the Aviation Minister, Ghana is expected to hold 10 per cent stake in the carrier, which is yet to be named, and the rest held by the private sector.

He said talks were ongoing to get regional carriers to partner and invest in the new airline.

The Ghanaian Times welcomes the new development and commends the government for throwing its weight behind the new venture.

We recall that efforts to re-establish a national carrier has been toyed with all previous governments, with former President Kufour’s government actually establishing an airline but that did not survive.

Since then, many other efforts have not yielded the desired results but with the signing of the provisional order, we are certain that the new venture is going to get off the ground.

Indeed, previous attempts to set up the airline were dogged by both political and financial challenges but we hope that this time around those obstacles have been removed.

With a booming aviation industry in West Africa and Ghana positioning itself to become an aviation hub, the establishment of a national airline is surely going to boost its chances.

Besides, Ghana stands to gain from the development of an international airline to boost the economy and develop the tourism sector.

We hope that the Aviation Ministry would soon find the right partners so that they can quickly begin operating the new “Ghana Airways”.

We look forward to a national carrier that would bring back the national pride that Ghanaians were so proud of in the past.

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