The government has convinced commercial airlines to use the nation’s airspace to lower their prices in order to reflect the aviation industry’s good trends, particularly as domestic air travel experiences its highest levels of patronage.
The announcement follows a significant uptick in air traffic following the relaxation of COVID-19 limitations and the relative improvement in a number of key operational metrics over the years.
Domestic passenger flows (throughput), the highest ever recorded in the industry, increased from 423,718 in 2020 to 852,101 in 2022, according to the Ghana Airport Company Limited (GACL).
The industry benefited from the removal of the 17.5% value-added tax (VAT) on domestic airline tickets in 2017, the past decrease in jet fuel prices, and most recently, the appreciation of the cedi against the dollar, according to Hassan Tampuli, the deputy minister of transport in charge of aviation, who made the call at the fourth Aviation Ghana Stakeholders Meeting in Accra yesterday.
Mr. Tampuli continued by saying it was unexpected that recent improvements in operational indicators had not resulted in a drop in domestic airfares.
“I am aware that in the past, VAT was removed and then restored, but in between the period airfares for domestic travel remained the same. Very recently, the exchange rate went up and then dropped again, yet the fares remained unchanged,” he said.
Source: Mybrytnewsroom.com/Joseph Asare
