Aviation fuel to go down by 20%
- Posted on
- Comment
The National Petroleum Authority (NPA) will soon formally announce a 20 per cent reduction in the cost of aviation fuel, government has indicated.
President John Dramani Mahama said government had consulted with the NPA, and the authority had agreed to adjust the cost of aviation fuel and reduce it by 20 per cent.
He hoped that the reduction would improve passenger volumes immensely and “make Ghana a preferred destination for fuelling, and I believe that will increase traffic and also increase the internally generated funds.”
President Mahama made the disclosure when he commissioned some facilities at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) yesterday.
Due to the many taxes, Ghana’s aviation fuel is about 50 per cent higher than its peers in the sub-region, thus compelling many of the airlines to travel beyond the borders to refuel.
According to him, one of the complaints he had constantly received was one about Accra being the highest point of cost for aviation fuel. Several airlines, therefore, prefer to fuel outside Accra.
It will be recalled that in August last year, the Managing Director of the GACL, Mr Charles Asare, indicated the company’s resolve to engage government on how to have the price of aviation fuel reduced for the airlines using the country’s airport.
The move then was intended to make the airport more attractive to the airlines while helping to reduce their operational costs.
“Ghana has the highest cost when it comes to aviation fuel, and that is not too attractive for the airport,” he said, adding, “It is high because of the taxes, not the real fuel itself, so we will talk to see how best the cost can be reduced.”
According to him, the case to be made by the company would be valuable and “we are optimistic we will succeed in the greater interest of the country”.
Many airlines that once used the airport have packed out because of the high cost of aviation fuel in Ghana.
One of such airlines is United Airlines, which abandoned the Accra/Baltimore Route with such complaints.
By Isaac AIDOO, Accra
ABOUT: Nana Kwesi Coomson
[email protected] An Entrepreneur, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Communications Executive and Philanthropist. Editor-in-Chief of www.233times.com. A Senior Journalist with Ghanaian Chronicle Newspaper. An alumnus of Adisadel College where he read General Arts. His first degree is in Bachelor of Arts - Political Science (major) and History (minor) from the University of Ghana. He holds MSc in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Energy with Public Relations (PR) from the Robert Gordon University in the United Kingdom. He is a 2018 Mandela Washington Fellow who studied at Clark Atlanta University in USA on the Business and Entrepreneurship track.
View all posts by: Nana Kwesi Coomson
(Selorm) | 
(Nana Kwesi)