Let’s overhaul operations of domestic airlines - Adaklu MP

Ho, March 01, GNA - Mr Kwame Agbodzi, Member of Parliament for Adaklu has called for the overhaul of operations of domestic airlines in the country.

He said their services had deteriorated whiles fares had gone up despite the removal of the 17.5 VAT on domestic airfares.

Mr Agbodza who made the call in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on the Starbow aircraft crash report submitted to Parliament, said the report was not convincing and that what was needed was an overhaul of the operations to make it attractive to other players and clients.

“The report is revealing. You can’t believe that the cabin crew was clueless after the accident. We need to do something. Now it is only Africa World that is operating. We need to make the operations safer, more competitive and attractive,” he stated.

The MP said the report suggested that there were gaps in the airline regulators work and lack of coordination between the crew, which he said was too serious to ignore.

Mr Agbodza said the report, “unfortunately” also talked about the pilot not taking the right decisions during take-off and the aircraft inspection team failing to notice that the pilot’s seat was loose.

He said the accident could also not be blamed on bad weather because government installed a state of the art weather monitoring system capable of predicting weather accurately at least 24 hours before a weather event and called for a holistic approach in addressing the challenges.

In November last year, a Starbow Airline aircraft on a flight from Accra to Kumasi overshot the runway at Kotoka International Airport as it attempted take-off.

The plane, with 63 passengers and five crew members, ended up in the fencing around the Airport, leaving some passengers traumatised.

GNA

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