Officers hoisting flags of the United Nations, Ghana and ICAO
THE GHANA Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) in collaboration with the Ghana Civil Aviation Training Academy (GCATA) commemorated this year’s International Civil Aviation Day in Accra with a flag-raising ceremony.
The United Nations (UN) General Assembly in 1996 officially recognised December 7 as the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Day in the UN system with the aim of generating and reinforcing worldwide awareness of the importance of civil aviation to the sustainable development of States, and of the unique role ICAO plays in helping nations to cooperate and realise a global air transport network that connects cultures and communities across all world regions.
The ceremony, held under the theme: ‘Advancing Innovation for Global Aviation Development’, had in attendance management and staff as well as officials and dignitaries from the two organisations and representatives from other state institutions among others.
In a keynote address, Deputy Director-General (F&A) of GCAA, Juliet Okae, noted that the theme could not be more appropriate, given that the operations of most Civil Aviation Authorities (CAAs), airlines, airports and air navigation service providers (ANSPs) have not yet fully recovered from the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Like several key players in the aviation sector, GCAA has been badly affected by the crisis,” she lamented. “Our revenue levels plummeted, and our staff had to take pay cuts, as part of a raft of measures we implemented to mitigate the impact of the pandemic.”
Ms Okae stressed that within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and the sectoral recovery being witnessed across the global aviation industry, there was the need for stakeholders to recognise the air transport priorities confronting the world; and assured of their commitment to ensure that the GCAA delivered on its mandate.
“As the regulatory agency for air transport in Ghana, GCAA remains committed to its core mandate of licensing air transport operations, maintainingoversight of aviation safety and security, as well as providing air navigation services within the Accra Flight Information Region (FIR), which comprises the airspace of Ghana and a large area over the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean.”
She further stressed that with Ghana safely reopening the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) to international passenger traffic, consistent with recommendations provided by the ICAO Council Aviation Recovery Task Force (CART) about a year and a few months ago, Ghana, through the GCAA, had complied with all standards and recommended practices of the UN specialised aviation agency since becoming a contracting ICAO State on May 9, 1957.
BY Nii Adjei Mensahfio