After Ghana Airways went out of business in 2004, the nation was forced to abandon all investments it had made in the national airline.
According to a former Deputy CEO of Ghana Airways, Captain Paul Forjoe, he believes the country wasted huge sums of monies following the collapse of the national carrier.
Speaking in an interview with Accra-based Asaase Radio, Captain Forjoe recounted how the collapse of the once-vibrant national carrier could have been averted with proper planning and understanding of the business.
“One of the saddest things with the demise of Ghana Airways, to me, was that as a nation, we threw away money. Ghana Airways’ greatest asset was its rights and it could have been sold to other airlines but we failed to do so. For example, its land rights to Heathrow was hundreds of millions of pounds,” the former deputy CEO shared.
Captain Forjoe continued that, “Somehow, because we had people who did not understand the business, they declared bankruptcy believing that they could set up another airline and get those rights but it does not work that way because the moment you declare bankruptcy you have lost the rights.”
“In truth, if people understood this, people should be going to jail for financial loss [to the state] because what did Ghana Airways owe when it went bankrupt? It was a patent,” he added.
Since the collapse of Ghana Airways in 2004, and the subsequent collapse of Ghana International Airlines in 2010, Ghana has been without a national airline for international flight operations.
Despite the signing of several MoUs with Ethiopian Airlines and EgyptAir, moves to re-establish a national carrier hit a snag and this led to the establishment of a new committee to vet all proposals under the former Ministry of Aviation, which is now being run by the Ministry of Transport.
With years in the works to establish a new national carrier, the government of Ghana finally selected ‘Ghana Airlines’ as the name for the new home-based carrier, with plans to commence operations by July 2023.
Ahead of the selection, names such as Akwaaba Airlines, Black Star Airlines, and Kente Airlines were mooted as part of the efforts to get a suitable name that will reflect Ghana’s culture and boost the enterprise.
Ashanti Airlines, which is owned by business moguls, Osei Kwame Despite and his partner, Dr. Ernest Ofori-Sarpong has secured its Air Carrier License (ACL) and is seeking to complete the issuance of its Air Operator Certificate (AOC), which authorizes an operator to undertake specified commercial air transport operations.
Zotus Group Inc., in the United Kingdom, has also been selected to become the financial and operational partner of Ashanti Airlines, with the government of Ghana having its shares.