As part of preparation to operationalize the country’s homebased carrier, which is yet to be set up, a team of experts from Airbus are to meet with the Ministry of Aviation, this week.
This should foster plans towards acquiring the requisite fleet of aircraft for the home-based carrier.
The meeting with the team was made known by the Minister for Aviation, Joseph Kofi Adda, when the France Ambassador to Ghana, H. E. Anne-Sophia Ave, paid a courtesy call
Further to this, Ghana and France are set to strengthen collaboration in the aviation sector, as government aims at making the country an aviation hub in the sub-region.
Five aircraft manufacturers account for the majority of the French market, with the Airbus being the largest. The French civil aerospace industry in 2017 grew to €48.6 billion.
France’s aerospace industry manufacturers derive over three-quarters of their revenues from civilian sector programs, the majority of aircraft manufactured being destined for export.
At the meeting, the Minister said, “We are looking at decoupling the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority into the Air Navigation Services in one hand and the regulator on the other.”
“We need to strengthen the navigation services,” he added.
Other areas of collaboration include developing soft skills, in terms of capacity building of professionals and personnel from aviation training institutions and jobs that would be created for them.
Adda said, “we are going to look at how they are going to get French language taught in these institutions.”
The Minister called for a further collaboration to have more active participation in the aviation institutions in terms of the languages being taught “because, they have the potential to generate jobs and employ the youth not just in Ghana but also to employ them in activities outside the country, since we have French speaking countries across our borders.”
By Joshua W. Amlanu