Let’s learn from Ghana Airways collapse — Wg Cdr Mensah
A Former Director-General of the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), Wg Cdr Andy Mensah(retd), has urged the government to draw lessons from the collapse of Ghana Airways to help guide the country’s dream of reviving its national carrier.
He said that the proposed national airline must be structured to remain competitive, financially sustainable and operationally resilient to survive in the highly competitive global aviation industry.
“Ghana Airways collapsed not because it was incapable, but mainly because it was denied government capital support to renew its uneconomical and uncompetitive “methuselah fleet of aircraft,” Wg Cdr Mensah said.
He said the country continued to lose significant foreign exchange to international airlines because it no longer had a functioning national carrier to compete in the global aviation market.
Wg Cdr Mensah was speaking at the 40th anniversary conference of the GCAA in Accra.
Ghana has been without a national carrier operating international flights since 2004, when Ghana Airways ceased operations.
Its successor, Ghana International Airlines, which begun operations in 2005, also shut down in 2010, leaving a major gap in the country’s aviation industry.
Ghana Airways was established in July 1958, with a start-up capital of £400,000 and a 60 per cent stake, while its partner, British Overseas Airways Corporation, held the remaining shares.
The current government has renewed efforts to revive the national carrier, with plans underway to secure a strategic partner for the venture.
Benefits
Wg Cdr Mensah said the absence of a national carrier meant the country was missing out on hundreds of dollars the sector could have generated for the country.
He said that with passenger traffic at the Accra International Airport exceeding 2.5 million annually, foreign airlines were benefiting significantly from ticket sales.
“Currently, Accra Airport is recording about 2.54 million passengers and still counting.
Let’s assume that each return ticket costs averagely and conservatively $1,000.00. That alone translates into a staggering $2.5 billion which no Ghanaian airline partakes in ,” he said.
Wg Cdr Mensah attributed the success stories of African airlines such as Ethiopian Airlines and Kenya Airways to the fact that they received strong state backing and strategic support.
Collaboration
The current Director-General of the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority, Rev. Stephen Wilfred Arthur, said that the growth and sustainability of Ghana’s aviation industry would depend on stronger collaboration among regulators, policymakers, airline operators and other key stakeholders.
He said the sector needed practical and action-oriented discussions that would translate into measurable outcomes rather than remaining only at the level of policy proposals and visions.
Rev. Arthur stressed the need for the industry to prioritise passenger welfare, safety, accountability and innovation in order to build confidence in the aviation system to ensure long-term sustainability.
“We should ensure that our discussions and engagements translate into actionable outcomes that will benefit the entire industry, so that another year from now we will not only talk about plans and visions but celebrate real deliverables and progress,” he added.
