According to the company, the quest to make the airport a hub in the sub-region would not be compromised, adding that “moves to remove the encroachers will involve the use of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) and court action where necessary.”

The new Chief Executive Officer of the company, Mr John Dekyem Attafuah, who said that in an interview with the GRAPHIC BUSINESS in Accra, last Tuesday, subsequently warned those who had encroached on the airports lands across the country to vacate the lands to avoid any litigation.

The warning by the new CEO of the company comes at a time when estate developers, with the connivance of chiefs and family, have engaged the services of land guards to protect lands they have illegally taken from the GACL.

Unconfirmed reports indicate that some of the estate developers are people in higher authority who have engaged others to front for them in their quest to hide their identity while they perpetrate the illegality.

But Mr Attafuah gave an assurance that all the necessary steps would be taken to recover what belonged to the state.

He acknowledged measures already being undertaken to secure the lands with the Lands Title Commission and noted that the move would be expedited to ensure that all what belonged to the company were intact.

“We will register the lands. I know work on the ones in Accra is far advanced and so we will work faster on those in Kumasi, Sunyani, among others,” he assured.

Ongoing projects

With regard to the ongoing projects at the airport, he said all efforts would be made to ensure that work was completed on time.

“There are some complaints that the projects have taken too long to complete and that is costing the company some money; but we will engage the contractors to ensure that we do things faster to save us some money,” he said.

 The projects being undertaken at the airport in Accra includes the building of a new terminal, Terminal 3, to give Kotoka International Airport a new facelift.

Already, the airport is attracting some major airlines across the world, the latest being Air France, which flies out of Accra three times a week.

A recent one was also South African Airways, which is flying direct to the United States of America (USA) from Accra.

Safety and security

Mr Attafuah said while focusing on the expansion of the airports, management would not lose sight of the need to ensure safety and security.

“We will not compromise safety and security because one of the surest ways to make Kotoka a hub and also attract the other bigger and world class airlines into the country will be to have safe and secure airports,” he said.

According to him, it is always necessary to ensure that people “do not fly things that are not safe to other jurisdictions. It is also necessary to ensure that the safety of passengers is also always guaranteed. By this, more will be attracted to use the airports just as we see in other countries”.

In the area of staffing, he said efforts would be made to beef up the staff strength by ensuring that “we have the full complements of staff with the requisite skill and expertise to help in attaining the targets set for the company.”

He said the role of the staff was also critical in ensuring safety and security at the airports and pledged his commitment to work closely with all within the company to ensure continuous harmony at the workplace.