The Ghana Civil Aviation Authority, the aviation sector regulator, has granted Ethiopian Airlines a Fifth Freedom right to operate direct flights between Ghana and Canada.
The approval, seen by AviationGhana, follows an official request made by the Addis Ababa airline for permission to operate direct flights between the two countries.
Fifth Freedom Rights refer to the right to carry passengers from one’s own country to a second country and from that country onward to a third country. Some international airlines that service the Kotoka International Airport exercise Fifth Freedom, as granted by the Ghana CAA, and operate flights from Accra to other third countries within the sub-region such as Abidjan, Freetown, and Dakar.
There are no flights between West Africa and Canada despite the increasing traffic between the sub-region and the north American country, a gap Mr. Lemma Yadecha Gudeta, Chief Commercial Officer of Ethiopian Airlines, says they are ready to fill.
“It is very key to have a direct flight between Canada and West Africa. Permissions, are the only things that we are waiting for. We have had positive engagement over there in Canada. We are going to get more slots to fly to Canada. For sure, we will connect Western part of Africa to Canada,” he told AviationGhana.
