Aviation Minister Kofi Adda says government will still go ahead to partner Ethiopian Airline to set up the home-based carrier.

This comes after concerns were raised about the safety of Ethiopian Airlines fleet following a crash involving one of its Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft. 

The government in December signed an MOU with the Carrier to be major partners in the setup of a home-based carrier.

Under the MOU, Ethiopian Airlines is expected to bring on expertise and aircraft. 

However, following the recent crash of an Ethiopian Airline aircraft, which claimed the lives of all its passengers, there have been concerns about the airline operating the nation’s carrier.
    
Speaking at a press conference Tuesday, the Minister for Aviation, Kofi Adda, said they will go ahead with the agreement as Ethiopian airlines have a long-standing reputation of being one of the best. 

He said, “Ethiopian Airlines has been in operations for over 80 years and we as a country intend to continue with our partnership arrangements with them.

“The negotiation will go on between now and April in the hope that we come to an understanding on the shareholder’s agreement so that we can go ahead and become operational.”

The Minister also clarified that the agreement is yet to set out the choice of aircraft to make up the fleet for the home-based Carrier. 

“We’ve not decided on any particular aircraft for the long haul yet. We are shopping between Airbus and Boeing. We will go through the types of aircraft that they have then come to an agreement on which type of aircraft we can use for our long haul flights,” Mr Adda said.

He added there are experts who will be monitoring the process to advise on which aircraft will best suit the services of the home-based carrier.

He assured that Ethiopian Airlines is one of the safest operators and the recent accident was a one-off occurrence.

Last February, a team from the Ministry of Aviation was in Ethiopia to continue discussions on the shareholders’ agreement to know where Ghana stands in terms of corporate governance agreement and the ownership structure.