As of April 14th, air travelers wishing to fly in and out of Ghana have a new option when choosing their airline. In addition to older companies like Ghana Airways, KLM, and Lufthansa, Bellview Airlines, a Nigerian company, will now offer flight service from and to Kotoka International Airport in Accra.

Accordingly, the company has opened up a new regional office on Ring Road East to serve its Accra business.

Ghana joins a number of West African countries to be served by the airline, including Sierra Leone, the Gambia, Nigeria and Guinea. Bellview also flies direct to Europe via Amsterdam, to East Africa via Nairobi, and to India via Bombay. Flights within the sub-region are served by two DC-9-32 series planes, while the intercontinental routes use state of the art A300-600R planes.

This reporter visited the new Accra office, where representatives were shy. "We are very new here," they said, "Come back in a few months and we will have much to say."

A visit to Bellview's website (www.bellviewair.com), however, reveals more information on the young company than one might need. Some highlights:

Bellview started out as a travel agency in 1987. Five years later, the company leased a Russian plane, a Yak 40 with a capacity of 30 passengers. This plane was strictly for commercial use, but in 1993, the airline began serving passengers, operating a DC-9-32 series plane within Nigeria. As mentioned above, the airline now has two DC-9-32's and one A300-600R plane.

With almost 10 years of flying under its belt, Bellview still has an accident-free track record. It is known throughout the industry for its superior customer service, and it has been voted best airline in 1995, 1996, 1997, and 1998. The airline is the first private African company to offer Airbus service. And now it is here in Ghana.