President Akufo-Addo
President Akufo-Addo has indicated his government’s readiness to develop the aviation industry to make it competitive in the West African sub-region.
Delivering the keynote address at the opening of the 57th Annual Conference of International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers Association (IFATCA) in Accra yesterday, he outlined a number of projects initiated by his government towards achieving this goal, including the construction of a new passenger terminal at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) with capacity to handle five million passengers a year.
He also talked of government’s intention to establish a national airline in keeping with the country’s vision of becoming the aviation hub in West Africa. Government also intends to establish an aviation academy, upgrade the Kumasi and the Tamale Airports, among others.
“Our vision is to position Ghana, both as an aviation hub within West Africa and as the preferred destination of choice for travellers…Government hopes to achieve this by working with the private sector to offer modern attractive air transport infrastructure by building capacity and establishing institutional and policy framework to enhance safety and security of air services,” he emphasised.
This, he indicated, was part of the reasons why he appointed a minister for aviation.
He stressed the importance of the air traffic industry to the development of the global economy, whiles urging governments to make requisite investments into the sector.
“We must, as a matter of priority, ensure that the aviation industry is placed among the top priorities of our national priority agenda,” he stressed.
With global air traffic projected to grow by some 5.6 percent annually, President Akufo-Addo maintained that countries ought to position themselves to reap the impressive benefits from the sector.
Figures released in 2017 by the International Air Travel Association (IATA) showed that the global air transport industry supported 62.7 million jobs world-wide.
“Every day, 9.8 million passengers take to the air, with 104 thousand flights and some US$18.6 billion worth of goods are carried. IATA notes that air traffic globally has been growing at 5 per cent annually and has been projected to grow by 5.6 per cent per year, over the next 20 years,” he said.
President Akufo-Addo commended air traffic controllers whose efforts and contributions to air safety and security in the aviation industry had been largely unrecognised.
“We more often than not, tend to recognize the efforts of our pilots, airhosts and airhostesses, engineers and other technical staff, and attribute the smoothness or otherwise of our flights to these people. But I am sure that I am not the only one who shares the view that without you our air traffic controllers, there would be utter chaos, both in our airports and skies…Air traffic will literally be impossible without the very important work that you do. As we say in Ghana, ‘Ayekoo’ and more grease to your elbows,” the president eulogized.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu, Presidential Correspondent