Domestic airlines will breathe a sigh of relief within a month when they receive the clearance to ply sub-regional routes.

This is, however, subject to the condition that they will provide a business plan for the routes, stating, among other things, how they will survive and sustain their operations on the chosen routes.

This follows a meeting of the domestic airline operators with the Ministry of Roads and Transport to thrash out issues regarding the granting of permits to ply the sub-regional routes.

The Deputy Minister of Roads and Transport, Mr Emmanuel Adjei Boye, said in an interview in Accra that the requirement for domestic airlines to apply for the permit after six months was to ensure that they could sustain their operations with the expansion. He explained that the industry was fragile and many operators enter thinking they could weather the storm, only to realise it was deeper than initially presumed.

?The industry is fragile, and even though domestic airlines are private entities, they bear the name of Ghana and they must be guided to perform better,? Mr Adjei Boye pointed out. He said the ministry had now asked applicants to provide information such as the routes they want to ply as well as a business plan on the routes they want to ply.

He explained that the business plan and other requirements were to enable the government to properly assess their ability to stand the test and also explore the possibility of providing them with any additional facilities that might be needed to improve the operations of the airlines.