Emirates not interested in Ghana’s National Airline

Emirate Airlines’ Senior Vice President for Commercial Operations in Africa, Orhan Abbas, has said the Dubai based national carrier is not interested in partnering Ghana or any other country in national airline operations.

Mr. Abbas, who spoke to the B&FT at the national headquarters of Emirates Airline in Dubai, stated that although Ghana was a great country, Emirates had no intention of partnering the government to set-up a new national airline.

He argued that Emirates, which is one of the biggest airlines in the world, today, flying to some 26 destinations in Africa with 165 flights per week, is focused on growing with its business plan which excludes alliances or partnerships.

“We, as an airline, look at our organic growth. We are happier in Dubai and as you can see we are not in any alliances.

So, as I said, we concentrate on our business model, on our plan that we have put forward and we do not venture out to go into any partnerships or alliances or even mergers or acquisitions.

Ghana is one of our strongest destinations, as we have seen a tremendous growth over the years.

But I am saying that we as Emirates look at our own growth and if you look at our history we have not done that before,” he said.

Since the desire was expressed by the government of Ghana to establish a new airline after failure to maintain the defunct Ghana Airways and Ghana International Airlines, there have been media reports suggesting Ghana was in talks with Emirates for a possible collaboration.