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Plan to create national airline on course - Prez Mahama

The transport ministry in 2014 selected international consulting firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) as the transaction adviser for establishing the new national airline.

President Erdoğan symbolically pressing a button to pour the first concrete for the start of work on the Terminal 3 project. With him is President Mahama.

The president made this known during a sot cutting ceremony for the construction of a new terminal 3 at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) with Turkish president president Recep Erdogan.

"Government's plan to set up a new national airline under a PPP arrangement to support the policy objective of creating Kotoka International Airport (KIA) as an aviation hub is also on-going. It is my expectation, therefore, that Terminal 3 will play a pivotal role to support the operations of this new airline."

The new terminal will accommodate 5million  travellers a year, 1250 passengers an hour, six boarding air bridges, according to the president.

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He added, “Already, KIA is the preferred choice of many airlines and with the completion of the project, KIA will be the most preferred aviation destination in West Africa.”

The project is financed from credit raised by the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority on its own balance sheet with no sovereign guarantee or public charge to its debt stock, the president said

A Turkish company, MAPA Construction and Trade Company, is the main contractor.

On his part, Erdoğan said his country was happy to be associated with the project.

“I believe that with the Terminal 3, Accra will be able to connect to the world in future,” he stated

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After evaluating bids for the airline carrier, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) settled on Qatar Airways as the best option for Ghana in its quest to find a partner for the new national carrier. PWC also included Delta and South African airlines as alternative options for Ghana.

However, the World Bank raised issues with the whole idea of having a national airline after studying the feasibility report present to it by the PWC.

World Bank subsequently withdrew its financial support.

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