Kotoka International Airport adjudged best-sized airport in Africa

The Kotoka International Airport (KIA) has been named the Best International Airport in Africa by size and region with passenger pollution of between 2 and 5 million by the Airport Council Internationals Customer Experience Awards (ACICEA) despite the impact of COVID-19 on its operations.

Industry players have said the Airport must be commended for the hard work put in to manage the Airport and its operations amidst COVID-19 setbacks since March 2020.

Aviation Expert Mr Shawn Mendis has stated that this is very welcoming news and the Airport must thrive on this to do more in the years ahead.

“This is actually a pretty big deal, the ACICEA awards effectively like the Oscar Awards for Airports. So, the fact that KIA has placed best in its category not just once but for the second time in a row is definitely recognition that KIA has effectively become the defacto premiere gate to the West Africa region. I think that’s a big credit to Ghana Airport Company Limited as well as to successive governments and notably the last government and the last Ministry of Aviation headed by Kofi Addah who took the right steps to expand the terminal and ensure that it maintains its standards to what it is now,” he said.

Mr Mendis also explained that: “in 2020 KIA due to the certain strategic positioning of itself was able to hold on certainly, traffic dropped from slightly over 3.1 million to just around 1 and a half million passengers last year and that is really nothing compared to many Airports around the world has done.”

He commended the Ghana Airport Company Limited and advised that they do not relent on this but rather work hard to maintain their status quo.

Meanwhile, statistics from the Ghana Airport Company Limited has indicated the passenger level has increased by a margin of 5% even though the COVID-19 caused some setbacks in the second and third quarter of the fiscal year in 2020 shrinking revenue by 3%.