Namibian national carrier, Air Namibia, says it had to stop operations in Ghana because of low number of passengers.
The airline has set June 25, this year, to pull its operations out of the country.
Air Namibia began operations in Accra in November 2009 and was expected to give South African Airways some competition on the Southern Africa route, but this has not been successful.
Air Namibia’s exit follows a similar moves by Virgin Atlantic, which cited high cost of operations on the Accra-London route for their exit from the country.
Country Manager for Air Namibia, Peter Addai, told Joy Business the airline was forced to exit Ghana because of the loses it is incurring in its operations.
“We don’t have enough business travelers and leisure travelers. And so for the four years that we have been operating, the operations has depended on traffic from Accra to Vindhoek and back, so when the figures are not [good] as expected, it simply means that we are running at a loss and it becomes unsustainable”, Mr. Addai explained.
However, some industry experts say most of these airlines are exiting after few years of operations because they did not carrying out the necessary due-diligence and market survey on the routes they intended to ply before commencing operations.
Meanwhile one of the world’s fastest growing airlines, Qatar Airways, is expected to begin operations in Ghana from next month.
Joy Business has gathered that the Airline has already started recruiting personnel for their operations in the country.
The air carrier, which has Doha, the capital of Qatar as its hub of operations, currently travels to 125 cities around the world.
Joy Business has also gathered that Qatar Airways will first start operations with cargo services.
Currently, there are about 23 international airlines operating out of the Kotoka International Airport (KIA).
