General News of Thursday, 14 February 2019

Source: GNA

President to cut sod for the commencement of two aviation projects

President Nana Akufo-Addo President Nana Akufo-Addo

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo will, on Friday, February 15, perform a groundbreaking ceremony at the Kotoka International Airport for the commencement of expansion works on the North Apron and the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority office.

Mr. Kofi Adda, the Minister of Aviation, who announced this on Wednesday at a press engagement, said the projects and others in the offing were part of government’s plan to make Ghana an aviation hub within West Africa, and a destination of choice for travelers.

The Government, towards that end, had already embarked on several key strategic programmes to change the fortunes of the aviation industry, he said.

Mr. Adda said, as part of the expansion and upgrading of infrastructure projects to contain the traffic, plans were advanced to introduce a light train that would convey passengers from the terminals.

There are other upcoming projects that would see some key roads at KIA being dualized and the building of an overpass to ease traffic.

The Minister affirmed that the new national career would start operations in April, this year, and would be plying routes within the West Africa sub-region and other international routes including London.

He reiterated the selection of Ethiopian Airlines as the strategic partner for the proposed new home-based carrier and that a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) had been signed to that effect.

Already, Mr. Adda said Ghana had signed Bilateral Air Service Agreement with over 65 countries, which would facilitate the smooth operation of the national airline.

He said the confidence of the nation’s aviation industry was growing adding that the Government would give it the maximum support to expand and generate revenue to boost economic growth as well as create employment for the youth.