The minister nominee for Aviation, Cecilia Dapaah, has said that plans are far advanced for Ghana to have its own national airline within the next two years.

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Appearing before the Appointments Committee of parliament on Wednesday, Cecilia Dapaah indicated that findings from a feasibility study for a new national airline will be assessed before a major decision is taken.

“I’ve sighted documents that can aid us have our own airlines. I have talked to the Ghana Airports Company Limited, as well as Ghana Civil Aviation Authority. Feasibility studies have been done by the previous government and I believe we’ll have a study of the findings and add up what we have received so far and take it up from there.”

She said she believes that “Ghana is ready to have its own carrier. At least to start with the ECOWAs sub-region and move up to regional and then take it up from there.”

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Cecilia Dapaah further added that Ghana getting a new airline will prevent foreign airlines from taking advantage of the country’s aviation industry to make huge profits.

“...People are eating our lunch, our dinner and our breakfast because we have 18,000 passengers by British Airways annually. The whole world, for instance, we have seven billion people travelling by air and as we can see in the ECOWAS sub-region alone, we have 326 million people. In Africa, 1.2 billion people and 60 per cent of all travels is done by air. So, there is no doubt that at least we can have a niche inside there for Ghana and with all the passion and fire burning in me, I will make sure that we get a national carrier,” she said.