Aviation Minister inspects on-going projects at KIA

The Minister of Aviation, Mrs Cecilia Abena Dapaah, has expressed the hope that air travellers would experience more comfort and international standard treatment upon the completion of ongoing projects at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA).

She has, therefore, urged contractors working on the new Airport Terminal three project to ensure that they “revise their notes” and build a more comfortable terminal that would provide much comfort to travellers.

As part of her six-week inspection of various airport facilities in the country, Ms Dapaah, on Wednesday inspected on-going airport projects at the KIA, involving the Air Navigation Centre project which was at the foundation stage and the Terminal three project expected to be completed by the first quarter of next year.

She also toured facilities at the Ghana Airport Cargo Centre (GACC), part of which was being handled by Swissport Ghana and the Aviance Ghana Limited, to look at their operations.

She also visited the Airport Clinic to interact with officials there.

During the tour, men were seen busily working on the various projects to ensure their timely completion.

The Minister, who was accompanied by her Deputy, Mr Kobby Okyere Darko Mensah, and Mr John Dekyem Attafuah, Managing Director of the Ghana Airport Company Limited (GACL) as well as Mr Simon Allotey, Director-General of the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority, entreated operators at the Airport to help government revamp the aviation sector.

She said government was working hard to reintroduce a national carrier within two years and so it would need the support of a company like Aviance Ghana which had operated in the country for 20 years to assist in making that a reality.

She said because of government’s commitment towards revamping the aviation sector, more reputable flights were joining the airlines in Ghana, adding that three new airlines started operating in the country this January.

“I will stand on behalf of my Ministry to assure the public that we will not disappoint Ghanaians,” Mrs Dapaah said.

She, however, emphasized the need to train more Ghanaian engineers and technical workers to enable them operate huge machines and equipment that were used to develop the airport infrastructure.

She said more pilots and other airport staff needed to be trained as a way of providing human resource to help move the industry, saying that there had even been reports of shortage of pilots.

The Minister insisted that Ghana would remain the hub of aviation in the sub-region due to government’s commitment towards making the aviation sector work again.

Mr Paul Kraig, Managing Director of Aviance Ghana, commended government for making such substantial investments towards improving infrastructure in the aviation sector.

He said the completion of the terminal three projects would make Ghana one of the best in the aviation business in the region.

Mr Kraig said the operation of Aviance started since 1994 in the country, making the company one of the critical partners in the sector, and that management would support government in every effort to revamp the sector, especially, in its quest of acquiring a national airline.

Mr Kraig also announced that management of his company would from June next month start refurbishment of the Aviance office building at the KIA at a total cost of about $6,000 to meet modern standards.