<<Print>>

The Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana International Airlines (GIA), Mrs. Gifty Anna-Myers has categorically posited that what stopped financiers from investing in GIA was not because of its running losses, but rather, had to do with legal issues between the shareholders, since the enabling environment had not been created for any meaningful investment to be realized. �You cannot invest in a company when there is litigation over the company�people start building houses in Ghana, they start a platform, they put up a notice for rent then tenants come, pay them money and they use the money to complete the house, that�s exactly what they did with GIA,� she told Kwami Sefa Kayi in an interview on PEACEFM�s flagship programme, �Kokrokoo�. Ghana International Airlines is owned by the Ghana government (70%) and US consortium (GIA-USA) (30%), but the shareholders have been engaged in a protracted legal dispute since 2006. The airline has 168 employees (at March 2008). The acting GIA Chief Executive continued: �Government of the day�and minority shareholder started an airline when they had very little money, government did not have money, the shareholders that was invited to come in had even less...then they start up the airline, they don�t have any money, they start looking for other investors and before the investors can even come in to help them, they start fighting, and then they end up in court�till today.� Mrs. Annan-Myers revealed that government through cabinet has offered the national airline a life support till the end of December, and has also given the green-light for the re-structuring of the GIA, with the objective of finding an investor to take over the operations of the airline. ��GIA is still flying, and GIA will continue to fly, because gov�t has given GIA a lifeline. The cabinet decision has given GIA a lifeline�back in March there was a decision by my sector minister (Hon. Mike Hammah, Minister of Transport), that gov�t should no longer support the airline and that cabinet will have to make a decision on the way forward for the airline�and finally, the decision is here. And the decision is a positive one, because gov�t is going to support the airline till the end of December, but at the same time, has now given its permission to re-structure and look for an investor, something which we haven�t had since the inception of the airline,� she said. According to her, because airlines are capital intensive, one needs to be sure that whatever investments made can be recouped. ��most airlines, especially National Airlines offer social services, they are not profitable, they are a means to an end. Some countries use it to open up their countries, look at what Emirates has done for Dubai, it is now the centre of commerce�so I don�t know the purpose for which GIA was set up, but definitely it hasn�t achieved that purpose�if the purpose is to attract other investors, then you don�t start fighting in court because no one will come�they are fighting for wrongful dismissal because they had a management contract�and asking for compensation and asking to be reinstated�because only the two shareholders knew what they were doing,� she lamented.