Guyana, Ghana sign air services agreement

Minister of Aviation of Ghana, Joseph Kofi Adda and Minister within the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, Annette Ferguson with the signed agreements. (Department of Public Information photo)

An air services agreement, initiating the process to facilitate directs flights between Guyana and Ghana, was inked on Friday.

According to the Department of Public Information (DPI), Minister within the Ministry of Public Infrastructure Annette Ferguson, who has responsibility for the aviation sector, and Ghana’s Minister of Aviation Joseph Kofi Adda signed the agreements on behalf of their respective governments at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, where the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Air Transport Meeting was ongoing.

“With this agreement, the benefit to be derived is that we should be able to see a shorter travel time between passengers from the Caribbean, particularly Guyana to Africa,” Ferguson was quoted as saying.

The DPI noted that the agreement was signed after the hosting of the third African Diaspora Meeting, where a recent assessment found that it usually takes more than 38 hours from a Caribbean country to Africa and this initiated the discussions that led to the agreement.

Adda, according to DPI, explained that the agreement came at an opportune time for the government and the people of Ghana.

“We’re trying to cut down the time and bring all the socio-economic benefit to all the countries involved. And this is what our politicians can do to show there is political work and commitment,” he was quoted as saying.

The signing of the agreement came one day after the governments of Guyana and Aruba signed a Memorandum of Understanding that will see direct flights from Georgetown to Aruba in the near future.