Accra, Nov. 23, GNA - Ms Gloria Akuffo, Minister of Aviation, on Wednesday inaugurated the first service provider solely devoted to the handling and shipment of passengers' excess luggage at the Kotoka International Airport with an appeal to passengers not to under-declare their luggage.

Passengers put aircraft at risk of major accidents by under-declaring their luggage, she said, while inaugurating World Express International (WORLDEX), an excess luggage service. "Since we are reluctant to declare our luggage when we travel, we must look for service providers like the one we see today," she said. Ms Akuffo noted that over the years, excess luggage carrier businesses had been established at leading airports such as Heathrow in London.

"With Ghana experiencing the Golden Age of Business, it is only right that the services and outlook of our major gateway to the world comes at par with the best on the globe."

She cautioned WORLDEX to be on the lookout for people who might want to commit criminal acts by manipulating their system. Nii Adumansa-Baddoo, Director General of the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority, said most airports in developed countries derived a sizeable proportion of their revenue from non-aeronautical sources such as retail activities and property income, adding that this would pose a great challenge to the new Ghana Airports Company Ltd when it becomes operational in 2007.

"We are going to count on retail concessionaries such as World Express to meet this challenge," he said.

Mr Robbie Nana Yaw Owusu, Chief Executive officer of WORLDEX, said the market had been ready for an excess baggage business for a while.