Ghana Airways, the national airline, will commission into service two additional DC 10 aircraft as part of measures to improve on its despatch reliability and to meet its route expansion program.

Captain Paul Forjoe, Deputy Chief Executive (Technical operations), said this when members of the Parliamentary select committee on roads and transport held discussions with Management of the airline. He said the additional fleet would assist the airline to position itself adequately to meet the challenges of competitors in the global arena.

The committee was on a fact-finding visit to Ghana Airways as part of a tour of departments and agencies under the ministry of roads and transport. The statement said a presentation of the overview of operations and future direction of Ghana Airways indicated that with the arrival of the aircraft, Ghana Airways would have a total of six aircraft, comprising three DC 10 and three DC 9, the largest fleet since 1970.

It said this is expected to improve the airline's operations in route expansion and fleet flexibility, and address the perennial problems of flight delays and cancellations. On the route expansion program, Ghana Airways will shortly commence services to Atlanta in the US and Toronto in Canada.

The management of Ghana Airways suggested the institution of a government policy to request all government travels to be effected on or through the airline. Mr. Dominic Azumah, Chairman of the Committee, said they would look favourably at the request and liaise with the appropriate Ministry to address the issue. Mr. Azumah said the committee is impressed by the performance of the present management of Ghana Airways and would support them.