Airline operators have retained their confidence in the country’s airspace, despite new security concerns following the Allied Air cargo plane accident in Accra last month.

The vote of confidence also comes in the wake of the forced landing of a helicopter carrying Newmont Ghana staff at Beposo in the Ashanti Region and an accident last month in neighbouring Nigeria that added to the fears.

“Technically, we have all the navigational equipment and we have the experts who are at par with the best in the world. So I can say with certainty that the country’s airspace is safe,” Peter Ochere Addai, Manager, West Africa, for Air Namibia told the B&FT in an exclusive interview.

“Ghana’s airspace is considered the safest in the sub-region. The regulator [Ghana Civil Aviation Authority] is very strict and would not hesitate to ground a flight,” said another official from Alitalia.

But part of the confidence was tempered as Mr. Addai said Ghana needs to develop new infrastructure quickly to boost security.

“A major challenge is the runway; we need to find an alternative. If the [Allied Air] accident had happened on the runway, we would have been found wanting.

Incoming flights may have had to land in neighbouring countries and planes would have been grounded until investigations were completed and the wreckage towed. That would have been costly. One runway is not enough; we need an alternative,” he said.

The Ghana Airports Company (GACL), which operates aviation facilities and infrastructure, has said it will expand the Tamale domestic airport into an international airport to serve as an alternative to the Kotoka International Airport (KIA). The project’s cost is estimated at US$174million.

The GACL has also said it is undertaking major rehabilitation works on the runway, taxiways, and aprons, and is constructing the southern apron to create eight additional parking bays at KIA.

Other infrastructure planned by the Airports Company is a Fixed Base Operator (FBO) for private jets, and the maintenance, repair and overhaul of aircraft.

Projections by the GACL show that air passenger traffic will hit six million by 2015, an increase of more than 200 percent over the total passenger throughput of 1.8 million recorded in 2011.

The increase in traffic will add pressure on the facilities, the GACL has said. According to its Managing Director, Mrs. Doreen Owusu Fianco, the number of carriers at KIA has grown from 15 a decade ago to about 40 currently.

Operators told the B&FT they were upbeat about the performance of the sector in 2012, and expected passenger throughput to be boosted as the industry enters its peak season in the third quarter of the year.

“I don’t think recent events have affected travel patterns because all our seats have been booked,” said an official of one of the major airlines who asked to remain anonymous.

Ghana’s aviation industry, with an average annual growth of 10 percent, is one of the fastest- growing and the most competitive in the West Africa sub-region- spurred on by strong economic growth that topped 14% in 2011.

Domestic carriers, including Starbow and Fly 540, are eyeing the regional market as they hope to bolster their earnings and diversify away from the limited internal traffic.**