A former chief of staff in the erstwhile Kufuor Administration, Kojo Mpiani says it’s imprudent for Ghana to venture into the airline business for commercial purposes judging from the competition it stands to face from other airlines in the country.
He made this known in an interview on Citi FM on Friday, 22nd of August.
Government has already contracted audit firm, Pricewaterhousecoopers, to analyze the possibility of Ghana acquiring aircrafts to start an airline business. Since the collapse of Ghana Airways, which metamorphosed into Ghana International Airline and subsequently suspended operations on 13th May 2010, Ghana has been left without a national airline.
This intention by government, in the view of the former chief staff, must not be hatched. However, according to him, if Ghana wants to own an airline for the sake of pride, then she can go ahead and do so. Other than that, he’s proposing we secure the services of experienced hands to ensure that the airline makes profit.
“Why do you have a national airline? For pride, fine. If it’s for business [for us] to make money out of it, that’s where the problem is. So if I’m saying no, it’s because of the nature of the industry that’s why I’m saying no, but if as a nation we think we should have a national carrier with our flag on it, fine,” Mr. Mpiani noted.
“The type of industry we’re going in; the little I know is if I am taking the decision, I will say no, but in doing that, then we’ve got to bring in people to help us to set up a business which will be profitable,” he added.
Government is waiting for the findings and advice from Pricewaterhousecoopers to see whether to go ahead and set up the airline or not.
Source: GhanaWeb
