South Africa (SA) Airways has re-launched its passenger flight operations from Johannesburg to Accra to deepen Ghana and South Africa bilateral relations in the airline transportation industry.
The SA 052 Airbus first flight arrived Friday night at 2254 hours at the Kotoka International Airport in Accra.
Transport Minister, Kweku Ofori-Asiamah, in a speech commended South Africa Airways for the decision to re-launch the Johannesburg route on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
He expressed optimism that the three times weekly service would increase to daily flights, while congratulating the Airline for a successful re-launch into the aviation space within “the shortest possible time”.
He said the aviation industry was beginning to pick up after the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic adding that the re-launch was an important step to fill the vacuum created by the long absence.
“As government, we recognise the contribution of airline operations to the socio-economic growth of the aviation industry, especially in the period when the industry is struggling to survive” he said.
“The Ministry wishes to assure South Africa Airways and other airlines of our unflinching support to promote and facilitate airline operations in Ghana.”
Mr Ofori-Asiamah said the Government was committed to providing a stable and enabling environment for the growth of the industry and that the Ministry was in partnership with the Ghana Health Service to ensure the safety of the airports from COVID-19 and other infectious diseases.
He said the Airports Council International (ACI) ranked Kotoka International Airport as the best Airport in Africa by size in 2019 and 2020 because of the strong policy initiatives and adherence to high Airports Service Quality.
“In February 2021, Kotoka International Airport received the ‘Voice of Customer Recognition’ from ACI, for demonstrating significant effort in obtaining customer feedback during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
He assured international passengers of high quality service at Kotoka as their destination or transit port.