"Ghanaian aviation authority to upgrade facilities at Kotoka airport"

Tuesday, January 18, 2005

Ghana/ Aviation authority to upgrade facilities at Kotoka airport
Ghana - The Daily Graphic


The Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) will install new flight
information display systems, close circuit televisions, baggage
identification display systems, common user terminal equipment and public
address systems at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) by the end of
February this year. It would also install aero-bridges at the passenger
terminal.

The acting director-general of the GCAA, Nii Adumansa-Baddoo, who disclosed
this, said the move was to make the KIA the aviation hub and the preferred
destination for travellers within the west African sub-region.

He was addressing the 14th meeting of the African Indian Ocean Satellite
Network (AFISNET) in Accra yesterday.

AFISNET is a group of countries in Africa and some islands in the Indian
Ocean which use a common satellite for aeronautical communication. It is the
first aeronautical satellite communications network to be established in the
world.

Countries which use the satellite are Ghana, Nigeria, Togo, Benin, Liberia,
Sao Tome and Principe, Angola and South Africa.

The five-day meeting is aimed at evaluating the performance of AFISNET, with
a view to attaining improved efficiency and effectiveness in the
aeronautical communications systems.

Nii Adumansa-Baddoo stressed the technical capabilities of the GCAA staff,
saying since a technical and financial support agreement with the European
Union ended in 2002, the GCAA had been left on its own to maintain its
equipment.

He said the authority's engineers and technicians had proved capable and
demonstrated great technical prowess in that respect.

He emphasized the importance of appropriate communication, navigation and
surveillance equipment in the aviation industry and said without them, the
objectives to promote a safe and orderly development of civil aviation would
not be realized.

In a speech read on his behalf, the acting minister of roads and transport,
Dr Richard Anane, urged the participants to put aside self interest and in
the spirit of regional cooperation come out with what would serve the needs
of humanity in general and Africa in particular.

"Always have at the back of your minds the fact that we want to build and
sustain a regional airspace that will be the safest anywhere in the world,
one that will be the pride of Africa and the envy of the rest of the world,"
the minister said.


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