Investors eye aviation infrastructure

Foreign and local investors are eyeing investment opportunities in the construction and rehabilitation of aviation infrastructure in the country, the Ghana Airports Company Limited (GACL) has said.

“We are looking at all forms of mobilising funds. We have received a lot of proposals --foreign and local -- and we are evaluating all these proposals. Eventually we will come up with the most preferred [proposal] for the company,” Mrs. Doreen Owusu Fianko, Managing Director of the GACL, told the B&FT in an interview.

While Brazilian investors have tabled proposals for construction of the proposed Tamale International Airport in the Northern Region, other investors are looking to participate in redevelopment of the Kotoka International Airport and to partner government to rehabilitate domestic airports in the country.

Under the Tamale airport project, estimated to cost US$174million, the runway which is currently 2,500 metres long will be extended to 4,000 metres. Ancillary constructions will include a perishable cargo centre to serve the Sahelien region of Africa, a Hajj terminal, an airport city, and a regional maintenance bay.

“They [Brazilians] have expressed interest in building the Tamale International Airport and discussions are on-going,” Mrs. Owusu Fianko said.

The GACL, the company responsible for planning, developing, managing and maintaining all airports and aerodromes in the country, is undertaking extension and renovation works at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) as well as Kumasi and Sunyani airports, with the Tamale airport earmarked to be developed into an international airport to serve as an alternative to the country’s only international airport, the KIA.

“For some of them, especially the regional airports, we are looking at participation from the private sector and discussions are ongoing. For some of the works -- like the rehabilitation of the Kumasi, Sunyani and Tamale runways -- we will have to look for money now and fix them, because with all these domestic airlines coming in very soon on a route like Accra-Kumasi we will have an average of 20 flights a day. So we need to fix the airport and expand the terminals,” she said.

The planned construction of greenfield airports at Princess Town in the Western Region and Ankaful in the Central Region is estimated to cost about US$500million.

“Greenfield airports that we want to put up at Ankaful and Princess town will cost a minimum of US$500million; so before we get the private sector to come, they will need to do their full feasibility study to ensure that over a certain period they will be able to recoup whatever they have invested.

“To build an airport, the planning alone takes not less than three years; but the moment you are ready and you start building, in two years you have a brand-new airport.”

The Global Market Forecast 2011-2030 conducted by Airbus, the world’s leading aircraft manufacturer, projects that Accra and Lagos will be aviation “mega-cities” come 2030 -- with the two destinations handling more than 10,000 daily long-haul passengers.

Airlines’ quest for dominance in these countries is fuelled by strong economic growth in the two economies, and the resulting increase in standard of living.

In 2011, Ghana’s economy grew at 14.4 percent, boosted by discovery and production of oil in commercial quantities and a rebounding construction sector. Growth in GDP for 2012 is expected to reach 9.4 percent.

Projections by the Ghana Airports Company show that air-passenger traffic is expected to hit six million by 2015. This represents an expected increase of more than 200 percent over the total passenger throughput of 1.8 million recorded in 2011.

The country’s aviation industry, with an average annual growth of 10 percent, is one of the fastest-growing and the most competitive in the West Africa sub-region -- spurred on by strong economic growth. The number of carriers has grown from 15 in 2000 to an estimated 40 carriers this year.