Transport Minister assures Delta Airlines will release new aircraft to Ghana

Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, the Minister of Transport, has assured Parliament that the Ministry will continue to engage Delta Airlines to release new aircraft for its operations in Ghana.

The Minister said his team had had discussions with officials of the Airline to improve its service on the Accra-New York route, which had come under criticism.

This follows an urgent question by Alhaji Mohammed-Mubarak Muntaka, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Asawase, as to what led to Delta Airlines flight from Accra to New York making an emergency landing at Praia Da Vitoria (a municipality in the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores).

He wanted to know what measures the Ministry was putting in place to ensure that Delta Airlines stopped using old aircraft in Ghana.

Ofori-Asiamah explained that though some of the Airline’s aircraft on the Accra-New York route could be old, once it was approved by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) as air wealthy it would be difficult to tell the Airline not to bring it here.

“The government is in discussion with three other airlines who have applied to service the Accra-New York route,” he said.

The Minister gave the third quarter of 2024 as when those talks would possibly conclude when pushed by some of the MPs to give a definite timeline to the conclusion of those discussions.