Barring any last minute hitches, Ghana will regain its Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Category one status by the close of 2018.
The status will allow Ghana to fly its national carrier directly to the United States after the airline is inaugurated.
Ghana lost its prestigious category one status in 2001 following the revocation of the category one status assigned to Ghana by the US Federal Aviation Authority.
This also followed the country’s failure to meet some key safety requirements of the FAA.
But speaking to Citi Business News, the Director General of the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority, Simon Allotey disclosed that an audit will be carried out in November 2018, with which the aviation ministry is hopeful will lead to Ghana regaining its FAA Category one status.
“Fortunately we have a major audit in November and the requirement for that and the USA are basically the same; so we need to do extremely well with the audit and it will enhance our chance of retaining the category one status”.
Mr. Allotey explained that following processes laid down by the US government, Ghana’s aviation training academy has now attained international status.
“The Ghana aviation training academy is now an associate training member and this has resulted largely from the cooperation with the US government. Appropriate qualification of our inspectors is a key prerequisite to attaining the FAA category one status, so the FAA category one programme is ongoing”.