She made the call when speak­ing as a panellist at the 4th Avia­tion Ghana stakeholders meeting held in Accra under the theme: “Post Covid-19 Recovery Process and the Journey Ahead”.

According to Madam Djam­son-Tettey, the current domestic Airport Passenger Service Charge was fixed at GH¢ 5 in 2010 and had since not been reviewed.

She told the participants that it had become critical to review the charge considering operation­al cost of running the newly-ren­ovated domestic airports in the country.

For 2022, the GH¢ 5 charged each domestic passenger for the use of on-ground aviation infra­structure yielded just under GH¢ 4.3 million cedis.

The amount, which translates to a little under GH¢ 360,000 per month, remains inadequate in the maintenance of Kumasi, Sunyani, Wa, Ho, Tamale airports and Terminal 2 of the Kotoka Inter­national Airport in Accra used for domestic operations.

Typically, for the existing re­gional airports such as the Tamale Airport, the major expenditures, such as electricity and water supply, maintenance of lighting equipment, air conditioning, janitorial services, waste dispos­al, maintenance of the terminal building, and other overhead costs, were close to a million cedis per month.

Madam Djamson-Tettey cau­tioned that with the upgrade of Tamale and Kumasi airports to In­ternational status, it would be dif­ficult to manage the running costs including utilities, maintenance of the Aeronautical Ground Lighting Systems and other equipment if an urgent review was not done.

Touching on the theme “Post Covid Recovery Process and the Journey Ahead’’, Madam Djam­son-Tettey indicated that the Post-Covid recovery had been gradual, but with encouraging number of passengers throughout, especially on the domestic front.

She indicated that post-pan­demic traffic on the domestic routes, namely Kumasi, Wa, Sunyani and Tamale, rose astro­nomically to 852,101 passengers in 2022 compared to pre – pandemic figure of 690,314 passengers in 2019.

This, she asserted, was testa­ment to the strong recovery within the sector, and therefore called for a concerted effort by all industry players to consolidate the gains made.

The Minister of Transport, Hon. Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, on his part, charged airlines operating into Ghana to prioritise superi­or customer service, safety and reliability in their operations. He further commended the resil­ience of all stakeholders during the pandemic and assured of the Ministry’s support where possible.

The Deputy Minister of Transport In-Charge of Avia­tion, Hassan Tampuli, supported by his colleague Deputy Minister of Transport, Frederick Obeng Adom, agreed with the sugges­tion for an increase in the APSC to enable GACL to properly manage its facilities. —Aviationghana.com