Local airlines refusing to fly to Ho – Aviation Minister

Aviation Minister, Kofi Adda has disclosed that local airline companies have refused to operate the Ho route, as the newly constructed airport remains closed.

He indicated that the operationalization of the airport has become difficult as local commercial airlines are refusing to fly the route.

Speaking at the Public Accounts Committee, the Aviation Minister disclosed he’s tried to engage some local airlines to fly to Ho but to no avail.

Answering questions from Chairman of the committee James Klutse Avedzi regarding whether there’s any hope for the airport soon the minister said there was none.

He noted, “We are very concerned about the Ho airport considering the amount of money that has gone into that and the service that can provide to the nation. We’ve explored different things and different options of how to deal with that, but given that we don’t have our own airline that we can by policy direct that they should be going there, it’s so difficult for you to negotiate with the commercial airlines.”

He went on, “the sad bit of it is that my own good friend who is the overlord of Asogli is the shareholder of Africa World and we’ve talked with him to try and consider the possibility of going there. The same thing with passion air, my good friend Edward Annan to see how as a shareholder he can also consider the airline going there. They have their own reasons, they look purely for commercial. So, it’s it a difficult thing.”

“We have considered other means in terms of how we can even get passengers for instance from the Ashanti zone who come to Aflao to trade to see if the airlines can fly them from Kumasi to Ho which is a longer route that from Accra to Ho. These are things that we’ve explored. It’s difficult to say tomorrow we’ll fly there,” he added.

The Ho Airport project launched by former President Mahama was a $25 million project which was funded by the Ghana Airport Company Limited (GACL) to boost economic activities and tourism in the Volta Region.

The project, which was scheduled for completion in September 2016, has 1,900 metres runway, a traffic control tower, 1,150 capacity passenger waiting area, an ultramodern airbus terminal and an automatic fire detection system.

Volta Regional Minister, Dr Achibald Letsa, has said the airport will not operate without planes.