Sean Mendis, an aviation expert and former Chief Operations Officer at Africa World Airlines, has disclosed that Ghana’s domestic traffic has recorded some profound growth despite the pandemic.

According to him, though all the West African sub region is doing well, Ghana is leading the pack in that regard.

“The West African sub region is doing extremely well. I think that Ghana might actually be leading all of Africa in terms of how domestic traffic is recovering. We just had a chance to look at the first half of the year and that is January to June numbers. These are relying on about 350,000 passengers travel domestically in Ghana, which puts us about on track for about 700,000 for the year. If we put that into perspective there were 690,000 passengers in 2019 which was the last full year without any disruptions”.

Mr Mendis further highlighted the strategies other countries are adopting to ensure the recovery of their aviation industry.

“So, I think Ghana’s recovery, especially with domestic traffic has been strong. On the regional front, I think we are beginning to see a lot slower recovery, but the recovery is there nonetheless. When you see this, as plenty of airlines are adding more capacity in the region, you know from Ghana itself, AWA is now going three times daily between Accra and Lagos. Senegal is launching a new route to Freetown as well, so I think definitely there is confidence in these sub regions as more and more vaccinations take hold and as people are able to travel with the right safety protocols”.

Border controls in Ghana, effective

Commenting on the emergence of third wave and how airports can ensure passenger safety, he explained that Ghana has managed to steer clear of importing large cases of COVID-19 persons.

“I think there are a lot of places in the world which are taking very different approaches to it. Some places like Dubai… I’m impressed by the steps they are taking there in terms of testing and maintaining protocols and compliance. Other places are shutting down, in Australia, they are tightening up border control and so forth. But I think the key to this is that you must have a robust strategy and this is something I’ve been saying for so many months now”.

Additionally, he insisted that government has taken a leap of faith in ensuring minimum circulation of imported cases.

“Ghana did a good job on implementing a border control strategy when borders reopened in September last year. The two phase testing protocol has proven to be very successful in keeping imported cases out of Ghana. It’s no different with the Delta variant. If you look at Ghana, which is one of the most open countries in the world right now; the number of cases that are imported despite being opened to the US,UK and to other parts of Africa and everywhere else are not that high. That is showing that the border controls are effective and they are working”.