An aviation expert, Sean Mendis, has expressed interest in the change of management at the Ghana Airports Company Limited (GACL), following the resignation of its former MD, Yaw Kwakwa.
According to him, although the new MD does not have the requisite background and experience in taking on the new portfolio, it will be a great opportunity for her to leave her mark. Mr Mendis explained that GACL is very competent technically as an organisation and despite the fact that it has struggled for the last few years, it has survived due to its strategic priorities.
His comments follow a statement announcing the appointment of a new Managing Director for the Ghana Airports Company Limited (GACL), Pamela Djamson-Tettey, who takes over from the former MD, Yaw Kwakwa, following his resignation.
“Yes, it’s interesting to see a change in management at the airport company. This particular new managing director doesn’t have an experience in the aviation sector. So, she’s not going to come in with a list of technical priorities, so to speak… So, I think in terms of where her priorities are, it’s in three areas. I think the first one is to rehabilitate the image of the company. You know GACL has been in the news for the last couple of years for the wrong reasons. It’s been controversy over concessions given to Frontiers Healthcare to run the COVID testing, there’s been the recent controversy over McDan, there’s been issues with staff strikes and demands to management changes”.
Sean Mendis
Mr Mendis iterated that this is an opportunity for the new MD to have a “clean slate” and to rehabilitate the airport company with different stakeholders. This, he noted, must probably be one of the top priorities for the incoming managing director.
Managing operations of GACL
Commenting on how her inexperience with regards to aviation will affect her work, Mr Mendis intimated that the business of airport operation is not something that one person can run. As such, the new MD has a capable team she can work with, one he described as “competent” and has “great confidence in them”.
“What she needs to do, and I think this is a very important priority is to ensure that they are ready for the rebound of air traffic in 2022. For the last two year, I think most of the companies in the aviation sector have been looking at ‘how can we just get through the pandemic?’. But as we’ve seen in 2021, domestic traffic in Ghana already rebounded to 100% effectively off 2019 levels. Even international travels crossed a million passengers for the first time since 2019”.
Sean Mendis
The aviation expert believes that although things may not be “back to normal” for GACL, it actually also means that things are starting to head back to normal.
“I think it may be actually a good thing to have an outsider there to keep the focus away from just the survival towards growth, towards managing and ongoing airport rather than just ensuring the airport is still there”.
Sean Mendis
Following an emergency meeting of the GACL board held on Wednesday February 16, 2022, Mr Yaw Kwakwa submitted his resignation as the Managing Director of the Ghana Airports Company Limited effective close of day February 17, 2022. Contained in a statement issued by the board dated February 16, 2022, it announced Pamela Djamson-Tettey as the new Managing Director of the GACL. Ms Djamson-Tettey’s appointment takes effect tomorrow, Friday February 18, 2022.
READ ALSO: Norway: Oil and Gas Firms Raise 2022 Investment Plans
