Virgin Eyes Daily Flights To Ghana

World renowned airline, Virgin Atlantic, is planning to increase its Accra-London shuttle to seven flights weekly, says Jonathan Harding, the General Manager of International and Distribution.

Virgin recently launched its tri-weekly flight between London and Accra barely two years after receiving an operating license to fly in the Ghanaian airspace.

Virgin Atlantic would prefer to keep the timeline for this planned daily flight under wraps, but aviation analysts say it may commence the initiative soon, given the growing passenger throughput between Accra and London.

“The more frequency we offer, obviously that’s more convenience for travelers,” Mr. Harding told CITY & BUSINESS GUIDE in an exclusive interview in Accra recently.

“We were fortunate to be given the opportunity to fly to Ghana two years ago, it has been a great journey. We are here because we are pretty confident in the potential of the market in terms of business and leisure”.

Ghana is Virgin’s fifth African destination. It operates an Airbus A340-300 with passenger capacity of approximately 480 passengers per flight. Virgin targets an annual passenger throughput of 60,000, “All of you will benefit from more choice, competitive fares and value for money”, stated Jonathan Harding.

Jonathan Harding expressed optimism for the Ghanaian market because of the growing business and leisure travelers to Ghana caused by the improved economic performance and political stability in the country. Indeed, he believes that the burgeoning oil industry in the country will stimulate a lot more travel in the coming months.

Currently there are over 60 international airlines flying to Ghana, some of them are doing daily flights. According to Statistics from the Ghana Tourist Board, the Kotoka International Airport recorded approximately 1.7 million passenger throughput in 2011 alone.