Antrak Air boss threatens Accra with legal action if plans for national carrier progress.

The founder and Chairman of domestic Ghanaian operator, Antrak Air (4O), Alhaji Asuma Banda, has threaten legal action against the government should plans to establish a new national carrier proceed. Earlier this year, Minster of Transport, Dzifa Attivor, had set forth a proposal involving the creation of a new national carrier, albeit under a a Public/Private Partnership.

According to Ghana's Business & Financial Times, Mr Banda claims that a state-run airline would be a "conduit to waste public funds".“If the government goes ahead to establish a new airline, I will challenge them in court. We have no money to throw away. It won’t work,” he said.

He added that the reason Accra's previous attempts at a national airline had failed, among them Ghana Airways (GH), was "due to the mismanagement of their operations."

Mr Banda has long been a vocal critic of the government's proposal. In an August speech, he once more denounced the plans underscoring instead, the need for privatization and the employment of entrepreneurial skills in the airline industry.

Along with Starbow Airlines (S9), he recently threatened to withdraw his airline from the Ghanaian market citing market saturation, high operating costs and poor-quality infrastructure. Accra subsequently acquiesced to Mr Banda's threats, placing a moratorium on the issuance of AOCs to new domestic carriers.

Source:  African Aviation Tribune