Civil Aviation detains Ghana Airways plane

The Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) on Wednesday detained a Ghana Airways West Coast flight for about two hours as it continues to take action to recover huge sums of money owed it by several airlines.

An official of the GCAA told the GNA that the national carrier owes some six million dollars.

Last week, Air Afrique, Air Gabon, Air Cameroon and Air Morocco suffered a similar fate for defaulting in over-flight charges to GCAA.

Among passengers who were affected by the delay was the Speaker of Parliament, Mr Peter Ala Adjetey who was on his way to attend the African Parliamentary Union Conference in Abuja, Nigeria.

Captain Joe Boachie, Director of GCAA, said Ghana Airways' debt dates back several years and the action should not be viewed as heavy-handedness.

He said the Authority has "bent over backwards" to accommodate Ghana Airways but to no avail and this is creating difficulties for the authority to carry out its expansion programme at the airport.

Captain Boachie said recently the two institutions agreed that Ghana Airways should either pay its charges up front or on a daily basis, but the airline failed to honour its promise.

"Ghana Airways continues to fly to foreign destinations, which means that they pay their (bills) to those countries, so why not in Ghana?

"In other not to delay our expansion and rehabilitation project we will recover every debt and ensure that this project is not hampered."

A source at Ghana Airways confirmed its indebtedness to GCAA and said an initial instalment has been paid and effort is being made to pay the rest.