Boosting the domestic airline business

Come next Monday, the President, John Dramani Mahama and the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, will jointly inaugurate the refurbished Kumasi Airport.

With the completion of the rehabilitation works on the airport, aircraft that fly to that destination can now move in and out regardless of the time of day or night.

The airport, which has had international designation standard since 2003, can now accommodate aircraft such as the 737/300, 737/400 and 737/500.

This is indeed good news for people whose line of work involves travelling the length and breadth of the country.

What this means also is that domestic flights can now connect from Takoradi to Kumasi and then to Tamale because they would have a refuelling facility at the Kumasi airport.

The quick pace at which development is taking place all over the world calls for a more expedited approach to undertaking tasks that hitherto would have taken some time to accomplish. With the touch of a button, information is sent across a distant geographical space and feedback is executed with the same lightning speed. That same fluidness in executing jobs under enhanced ICT regimes has also translated into the need to travel to any part of the world within a matter of hours or minutes.

In Ghana, travelling, especially from the south to the northern parts, has been a major challenge for some years.

This has been worsened by the poor state of our roads and at times, the reckless attitudes of other road users which has led to the needless loss of lives, and thus made travelling on the roads to other parts of the country a nightmare.

But news of the rehabilitation of the Kumasi airport should serve as a major boost for domestic tourism and the extension of other services that could only be provided within the national capital.

While the Daily Graphic commends the government for the completion of this project, it is our hope that work on other airports such as those in Tamale and Takoradi will be completed on schedule.

We know work has already begun on the Tamale Airport and with its completion, the entire country would be opened up to  facilitate business, boost tourism and ensure a consistent transfer of knowledge and technology on a timely basis.

The Daily Graphic also wishes to appeal to domestic flight operators to endeavour to make travelling to other parts of the country an experience worth repeating and within reasonable budget.

When such strides are made, then the country would be on the right pedestal to meeting national development goals for the betterment of the people.