South African Airways (SAA) has relaunched its passenger flight operations from Johannesburg to Accra to deepen Ghana-South Africa bilateral relations in the airline transportation industry.
The first SA 052 Airbus flight arrived last Friday (24 September) night at Kotoka International Airport (KIA) in Accra at 10.54pm.
In a speech read on his behalf at a press briefing, Kweku Ofori Asiamah, the Minister of Transport, commended South African Airways for its decision to relaunch the Johannesburg route on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
He expressed optimism that the three-times-weekly service would increase to daily flights and congratulated the airline for a successful relaunch into the aviation space within “the shortest possible time”.
Ensuring safety
Ofori Asiamah said aviation was beginning to pick up after the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic and that the SAA relaunch was an important step to fill the vacuum created by a long hiatus in the industry.
“As a government, we recognise the contribution of airline operations to the socio-economic growth of the aviation industry, especially in the period when the industry is struggling to survive,” he said.
“The ministry wishes to assure South African Airways and other airlines of our unflinching support to promote and facilitate airline operations in Ghana.”
Ofori Asiamah said the government was committed to providing a stable and enabling environment for the growth of the industry and that his ministry was in partnership with the Ghana Health Service to ensure the safety of Ghana’s airports from COVID-19 and other infectious diseases.
High-quality service
The minister said Airports Council International (ACI) had ranked Kotoka International Airport as the best airport in Africa by size in 2019 and 2020 because of Ghana’s strong policy initiatives and KIA’s adherence to high airport service quality.
“In February 2021, Kotoka International Airport received the ‘Voice of Customer Recognition’ from ACI for demonstrating significant effort in obtaining customer feedback during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic,” he recalled.
He assured international passengers of high-quality service at KIA as their destination or transit point.
The managing director of Ghana Airports Company Ltd, Yaw Kwakwa, said the relaunch of the Joburg-Accra route was a sign of confidence in Ghana’s aviation industry and the great strides made in positioning the country as a leader in airport business in West Africa.
He said the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines had offered hope to the aviation sector, which would enable South African Airways to achieve a consistently high on-time departure and arrival performance.
That, he said, is in line with its mission of providing world-class facilities and services for the benefit of all stakeholders.
Grace Jeanet Mason, the South African high commissioner to Ghana, expressed South African Airways’s readiness to partner with Ghana to achieve financial management, leading to job creation in the aviation industry.
Gloria Wilkinson Mensa, country manager for South African Airways, assured passengers of quality service and convenience.
“Pan-African airline group”
Meanwhile, South African Airways (SAA) and Kenya Airways (KQ) have signed a co-operation agreement with a long-term view to create a pan-African airline group, the two companies said on Tuesday.
“It is not a merger, but a partnership that seeks to reorganise KQ and SAA assets into an ecosystem that will make the South African and Kenyan aviation sector more competitive,” a statement from Kenya Airways said.
SAA said in a separate statement that the pact did not preclude either firm from pursuing commercial co-operation with other carriers and said collaborating would help contain costs.
The state-owned SAA restarted domestic flights last week and this week launches a scaled-down international service to five African capitals after its long-standing financial woes were exacerbated by the COVID-19 outbreak.
It came out of administration in April thanks to another state bailout, and the government has said it will sell a 51% stake in the airline to a local consortium.
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