Passion Air and Africa World Airlines (AWA) are reported to have lost over Ghs 406,000 on Wednesday due to forced cancellation of flights.
The two domestic airlines cancelled flights for Accra-Kumasi-Accra and Accra-Tamale-Accra scheduled at 3pm local time, following a strike action by workers of the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA).
Staff of GCAA embarked on a strike action to picket against encroachment of aviation lands and perforating of underground cables at its La Wireless Station near the AU Village in Accra.
The information available to norvanreports suggests that the Minister in charge of the sector may be only buying time, as those interested in grabbing the aviation lands are way above him.
It is important to point out that, taking over lands where navigational aids are located and subsequent developments of same into whatever will lead to a plane crush someday as these constructions interfere with the communications between the Air Traffic Controllers ATC and the aircrafts.
At norvanreports, we know and are aware of the fact that is there are no roads in the sky and many planes are moving in different directions within the airspace and the only means of controlling is through the ATC.
Ghana today due to the hard work of the staff of the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority have been able to build their Air Navigation Capacity and Efficiency which has given us the control of the Accra flight information region FIR which means we control over the airspace from Niamey into the Gulf of Guinea, Angola, Sao Tome & Principe and Equatorial Guinea. Sometimes these ATC officers in Accra even control the airspace of North Nigeria
Why on earth will we want to have construction close to the Air Traffic controllers which will interfere their ability to direct planes to the right directions.
Meanwhile, collectively, the two domestic airlines cancelled two (2) flights scheduled for Tamale and four (4) flights scheduled for Kumasi.
An Accra-Tamale- Accra flight typically generates about Ghs 87,000 per flight for the two airlines, while Accra-Kumasi- Accra flights generates about Ghs 58,000.
Staff of GCAA after talks with the Aviation Minister on Wednesday, called off the industrial strike and resumed work on Thursday.