Continuous travel restrictions to hamper growth of the aviation sector – Aviation Analyst
Aviation analyst Sean Mendes, has disclosed that the continuous imposition of air travel restrictions in different parts of the world will hamper the growth of Ghana’s aviation sector.
Despite the strong performance of the domestic sector in 2021, the continuous restriction will make it difficult for the sector to fully bounce back to pre-pandemic levels while international travel traffic is still underperforming.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has recently outlined a number of stringent testing measures to convince the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government to reconsider its decision and lift its travel restrictions on travellers from Ghana to the UAE which was imposed at the end of last month.
Mr. Mendes added that he is confident the domestic aviation space will continue to thrive while international travel makes slow gains in this year.
“Even though we don’t have full compliments of relevant data, I think the domestic sector in Ghana bounced back extremely well in 2021. It looks like Ghana has exceeded passenger levels for 2019. That shows that the domestic market has rebounded completely. International travel is however at around 65% of where it was in 2019.”
“I think we’ll probably see this recovering in the second half of 2022, but 2022 will still be below the 2019 numbers. The recovery is slow and steady, and unfortunately, while Ghana has been very consistent in its protocols for entry and for travel unfortunately international travel takes two countries, so if one country has restrictions then traffic numbers will be low,” he added.
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Meanwhile, the Government of Ghana has suspended the temporary restriction on all travellers arriving into the country from Israel.
A statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration on Friday, January 14, said the Ministry “wishes to inform the general public that the government of Ghana has suspended the temporary travel restriction on all travellers arriving from Israel.
“Accordingly, the general public is advised to take note of the new directive for their guidance.”
Ghana on Monday, December 20, 2021 announced a ban on travelers from Israel, South Korea, and Malta, in an apparent bid to halt the spread of the omicron coronavirus variant.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration issued three statements, none of which explicitly provided a reason for the travel bans imposed on travelers from Israel and South Korea.
People traveling from Israel for humanitarian or official purposes were however permitted entry, with “permission” from the Ministry.
