Monday, March 23, 2009
CEIBA Airline makes debut flight to Accra
CEIBA Intercontinental Airline, an airline from Equatorial Guinea, has started operations in Ghana to provide air services and deepen existing bonds between the two countries.
The move is expected to open up the two countries for increased business as well help connect the West and Central African regions.
The Minister for Roads and Transport, Mr Mike Hammah, said the the inauguration of the flight in Accra that the initiative was timely considering the difficulty of flight connections and limited availability of flights options for travel within the sub-region.
"The government of Ghana believes that the development of the region requires much more attention and integration than has been forthcoming in the past and we consider transportation especially air travel as an essential vehicle to move economic development at a quicker pace", he remarked.
The flight operations are in line with a Memorandum of Understanding between the Ghana Aeronautical and the Equatorial Guinea authorities recently signed for the provision of air services between the two countries.
He said under the terms airlines of the two countries were at liberty to operate air services for both passenger and cargo.
"The two states also concluded and initiated a main text on Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA), which now is expected to undergo ratification in the respective countries before the signing of the agreement", Mi Hammah added.
CEIBA Intercontinental is the national airline of Equatorial Guinea which will fly four times from Accra to Malabo via Cotonou and Abudjan and also land in Libreville, Brazaville, Bata and Pointe Noire.
The Chief Executive of CEIBA, Mr Mamadou Jaye, commended Ghanaian and Equatorial Guinean authorities for their swiftness and efficiency in implementing the open skies agreement between the two countries.
The opening of the Ghanaian skies, he acknowledged, would go a long way to boost the expansion efforts of the Equatorial Guinea national carrier which started operations only in 2007.
The relationship between Ghana and that country dates back decades, as Malabo, one of its major cities, was built out of the ancient Island of Francisco Miacias Nguema (Fernando Po), from where Tetteh Quarshie brought cocoa to Ghana that has become an important cash crop for the country.
The airline has dominance in the Central African Republic and is seeking to widen its presence in West Africa, with Accra as its hub within the sub-region.
Many of its nationals, civil servants and professionals of Equatorial Guinea are products of Ghanaian institutions of higher learning and are still coming here to train.
“The economic importance of Ghana in the sub-region as the first Anglophone country we have interactions with is bound to contribute to drawing our countries closer to the realisation of objectives we have set for ourselves,” Mr Mamadou said.