The Statesman gathered by Tuesday evening that Alitalia, the Italian Air Freight, has cancelled its maintenance management agreement with the Ghana Airways, effectively grounding Ghanair planes. The consequences are enormous.

This would mean that with no maintenance agreement, International Civil Aviation Authorities would not allow Ghana Airways to fly until a replacement is found. Ghana Airways, the Statesman learnt, owed Alitalia debts running into several millions of dollars. Officials of Alitalia recently came to Ghana to work closely with Ghana Airways as a means of evaluating the Italian company?s chances of recovering its credits from Ghana Airways.