Qatar Airways (QR, Doha Hamad International) is one of several carriers to have approached the Ghanaian government over its proposed new national carrier, currently in the process of being established.
"We have had request from Kenya Airways (KQ, Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta), Qatari Airlines [sic], Ethiopian Airlines (ET, Addis Ababa International) [and] several others,” Deputy Minister of Transport Joyce Bawa Mogtari told the Ghanaweb news site. “So the question of interest is not in doubt. It is just that we don’t want to make any mistakes this time.”
Last year, Accra appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers (Ghana) to produce a feasibility study only for its unrealistic projections of a March 2015 launch date to come under intense criticism.
Though local operators such as Antrak Air (Accra) and Starbow Airlines (Accra) have expressed strong reservations about the airline claiming it would exacerbate an already oversubscribed domestic and regional market, Hainan Airlines (HU, Haikou) subsidiary Africa World Airlines (AW, Accra) has reiterated its desire to participate in the new airline's establishment.
As such, PwC will help the government to choose a private sector partner to help launch the new carrier which will replace Accra's last ventures into the airline business, Ghana International Airlines (Accra) and Ghana Airways (Accra). Initial reports had said government would retain a 10% stake in the venture.
Founded in 1958, Ghana Airways had offered extensive connections between West, Central and East Africa with Europe and the United States. However, owing to mismanagement and mounting debts, the airline ceased operations in 2004 despite partnership proposals from Nationwide Airlines (Johannesburg O.R. Tambo), bmi british midland (Nottingham East Midlands), Arik Air (W3, Lagos) and Ethiopian Airlines. Thereafter, the government partnered US investor consortium GIA-USA in the set-up of Ghana International Airlines which operated between 2005 and 2010.
