Ghana’s domestic aviation industry has made significant strides in recent years and would receive another boost in December when night operations begin at the Kumasi airport, following the installation of the Aeronautical Ground Lights.
There are currently three domestic airlines operating in Ghana; namely Antrak Air, Starbow, and Africa World airlines.
Collectively, these airlines carried almost 600,000 passengers in 2013, compared to about 85,166 in 2007, on the three main domestic routes: Accra-Tamale-Accra, Accra-Kumasi-Accra and Accra-Takoradi-Accra.
The demand in the domestic aviation sector has seen some of these airlines increasing their frequencies to some of these destinations, especially Kumasi and Tamale, with Kumasi being the second busiest airport in the country after the KIA.
In spite of these improvements in the sector, and increase in demand, the corresponding infrastructure has been rather lagging for a long time.
Ghana’s airports, built years ago, have been sagging under the weight of the growth in the sector. This is true not only on the domestic front but also on the international and regional fronts.
Many stakeholders, especially airlines, have complained on countless occasions about the lack of adequate infrastructure. Domestic airlines, particularly, have been dissatisfied this, especially about the state of runways at the regional airports.
The Kumasi Airport has had its fair share of these complaints, particularly due to the absence of Aeronautical Ground Lighting to allow domestic airlines to operate in the night. This is because, airlines only make money when their aircrafts are flying and not being able to fly at night means major loss of revenue to these airlines.
However, the Ghana Airports Company Limited (GACL) as part of its mandate, and in line with its priority of improving aviation infrastructure, has embarked on expansion and renovation projects at most airports in the country. The KIA arrival hall expansion project is expected to be completed by end of 2014. The Tamale Airport is being upgraded to an international airport to serve as an alternate to the KIA.
Passengers and airlines plying the Accra-Kumasi route would also, from December 2014, be able to fly to and from the Kumasi Airport at night. Works are ongoing on the complete resurfacing of the 1,981 meter runway and installation of aeronautical ground lighting at the airport, which was constructed in 1943.
According to Mr. Kwadwo Abrefa Sarkodie, Kumasi Airport Manager, the contractor working on the AGL should be done with the work by his deadline of November ending, allowing airlines to begin night operations from December, 2014.
Briefing the GNA during a visit to the airport to inspect ongoing works, Mr. Sarkodie, noted that the contractor, ADB Ghana, was working very hard to complete the works on schedule.
The Kumasi airport currently operates from 6.00am to 6:00pm daily because of the lack of AGL to facilitate night operations. Due to this, the GACL has had to make special arrangements for the contractors working on the resurfacing of the runway and those working on the installation of the AGL to at night. Thus they start work when the airport closes at 6:00pm and hand by 5:00am for normal operations.
Occasionally when it rains heavily during the night, though, their work is hampered leading to delays in handing over and reopening the airport for normal operations.
Recently, there were complaints by domestic airlines about unannounced delays in opening the Kumasi for normal flight operations.
PW, the contractor working on the resurfacing of the runway has so far completed the first layer of the resurfacing, known as the regulating course and has also begun work on the second layer, which is the binding course with just 75 meters of runway to complete.
When the GNA visited the site, works were ongoing on the shoulders to allow for the installation of the lights within the deadline. After this is the done, the final layer (wearing course) would be done.
Mr. Godfried Mawugbe, ADB Project Manager, stated that the work was on course and would be completed on schedule. All electrical and civil works have been completed.
?All round the runway, we have laid PVC ducts to enable us to pull cable. We?re pulling around 27,000 metres of cables and have laid about 5.6 kilometers of PVC ducts,? he explained. ?We?ve constructed about 140 chambers, and are at the last stage of the concrete works, which is for the Precision Approach Path Indicator (PAPI)?.
?I can assure you that come 30 November, you will see the lights on the runway,? he declared.
ADB has also constructed a Constant Current Regulators (CCR) room where the equipment that would regulate the lights would be housed. It would be manned constantly from the CCR and remotely from the control tower. They have also installed a 1000 megawatt generator set which would ensure that the lights are always on, especially in the face the ongoing load shedding.
All the equipment needed to complete the work have been purchase and are on site.
