Government to partner private sector to establish national airline

The Ghana Government is planning on partnering with an established private airline company in the establishment of a national airline.

The minister for Aviation, Cecilia Dapaah, had earlier hinted that Ghana will have its own national airline within the next two years when she appeared before the Appointments Committee of parliament.

The country has been without a national airline since 2010, when Ghana International Airlines ceased operation. But the Ministry of Aviation wants to leverage on the management experience and routes by an established airline company in creation of a national airline.

The Director General of the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority, Simon Allotey told Starr Business the ministry of aviation is considering a major private sector participation.

“It will not be 100% state-owned like Ghana Airways,” Mr. Allotey said. He added: “It will have a major private sector participation. And what the Ministry of Aviation is looking at is the mode of ownership and everything to go with it, so the report by the transactional advisers, PricewaterhouseCoopers

is currently being reviewed extensively by the Ministry of Aviation and from there we will know where to go and for sure government will not own it 100%”.

Government has for sometime been seeking an experienced airline operator as a strategic partner to establish a new national airline for the country.

However, despite the seemingly advance progress government has made in re-establishing a national airline, the structure of the proposed new flag-carrier is currently imprecise. Interested parties, however, have submitted bids to the supervisory ministry which are being evaluated by the transactional advisor.

The Transport Ministry has said that government is not going to commit funds but will only seek a carried interest in the proposed new airline; an approach some aviation experts have questioned.

The Ministry of Transport, in an Expression of Interest (EOI) published in local newspapers, said: “The feasibility studies [for the establishment of a new national carrier] also demonstrated the new national airline will require partnership with an experienced strategic airline partner that has a global distribution network to adequately take advantage of opportunities in the market place”.

The partner, the EOI notes, ought to have good financial strength; technical strength in areas of IT systems and flight operations; maintenance yield and capacity management; good distribution network; and be a member of a global alliance.

These requirements effectively eliminate indigenous airlines that had expressed interest to partner government in establishing a new flag-carrier — given their network and financial strength at the moment. After the collapse of Ghana Airways, the former national flag-carrier, government invited private participation in the establishment of a new national airline. In 2004 Ghana International Airlines was established, with 70 percent shares held by the government and 30 percent held by a US consortium GIA-USA. Faced by a myriad of issues, the airline went down in 2010.