Aviation Minister champions air connectivity in Africa at ICAO Assembly

The Minister for Aviation, Joseph Kofi Adda is charging African heads and the International Civil Aviation Organization to work on eliminating cumbersome flight connectivity on the African continent by 2022.

Currently a lack of adequate infrastructure among others has led to a situation where African travelers may have to go thousands of miles out of their way and transfer through the Middle East or Europe in order to connect to other African countries.

Addressing the second plenary session at the ongoing International Civil Aviation Authority (ICAO) 40th Assembly, Minister for Aviation Kofi Adda said the move is key in improving business on the continent.

The Minister said “It is about time anyone who wishes to do business from anywhere in Africa to fly to everywhere in Africa in less than 24 hours without leaving the Africa airspace. I therefore call on policy makers, business operators and other key stakeholders in the sector to ensure that this becomes a reality by 2022.

The Minister further stressed on the call to all African leaders and Air operators to gunner and make the course a reality for Africa.

The need for improved connectivity has become urgent with the International Air Transport Association considers Africa as a growing aviation market with IATA forecasting a 5.9 percent year-on-year growth in African Aviation over the next 20 years, with passenger numbers expected to increase from 100m to more than 300m by 2026.

Moving on the Minister, Mr. Kofi Adda also challenged African nations to work hard on improving safety and security on the continent.

This was on the back of Ghana being awarded two ICAO council president certificate in safety and security, when we obtained an Effective Implementation or EI rate of 89.89 percent, the highest score ever by an African State, following ICAO’s conclusion of its Coordinated Validation Mission (ICVM) earlier this year in April”.

The minister said “we see this as an inspiration for other countries to aspire to higher scores so as to ensure that continent wise Africa will be seen as having a more safe and secure aviation industry to attract more investment.

These efforts the minister concluded was in line with making Ghana an aviation hub.