In ensuring efficient cost-effective and customer – oriented air navigation services to airlines, the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) is expected to be decoupled from the Air Navigation Services by the end of 2019, according to sources.
Currently, GCAA’s responsibility as both a regulator and services provider, acts as a constraint hence the need for the separation. The decoupling has therefore become necessary to resolve conflicts of interest.
Former Aviation Minister, Cecilia Abena Dapaah in her handing-over notes mentioned that, the current situation which makes the Authority both a referee and player at the same time, hinders the implementation of performance- driven air navigation services.
She again noted that in line with recommended international best practices, the aviation ministry together with GCAA has completed an in-house study to determine the technical viability of decoupling the air navigation services (ANS) provider from the regulator.
In 2016, the GCAA noted that by June 2017 the final decoupling report will be ready for endorsement by the Ministry of Transport [the ministry under which it operated] with all other stakeholders including Parliament, which was expected to give the legal effect to the separated entity.
In line with government’s agenda to turn Ghana into an aviation hub, this exercise, when finally implemented, would further ensure that high safety standards are met at the country’s airports.
According to the Global Journal of Management and Business Research 2013, experiences in other countries have shown that when there is separation of the regulator from the service provider, it unlocks the values of providing a better service.
Air navigation service (ANS) providers deliver air traffic management; communications, navigation and surveillance systems; meteorological service for air navigation; and aeronautical information services, among others.
By Joshua W. Amlanu
