Ghana: Accra airport's private jet pavilion closed three days after opening
In March 2019, McDan Aviation secured a 15-year lease to operate a VVIP private jet pavilion at Accra's Kotoka International Airport (KIA). The privately owned Ghanaian company, which has become the country's largest FBO, waited almost three years to start operations, but did not close some of its legal cases.
On 28 January 2022, McDan Aviation inaugurated the private jet lounge at Terminal 1 of the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) in Accra. "This terminal is purposely designed to attract more business to the country as soon as possible, and this is what the country needs for its mid to high-end businesses," said Daniel McKorley, McDan Aviation's Group Chief Executive Officer at the time.
Except that three days later, on February 1, Mr. McKorley announced in a letter to the Ghana Airports Company Limited (GACL) that he was suspending the operation of the facility with immediate effect. This was in compliance with an injunction issued to him the previous day by the Managing Director of GACL, Yaw Kwakwa.
Indeed, the airport authority had already asked him to cancel the official opening of this VVIP pavilion until "all necessary operational requirements and obligations are met". GACL mentions, among other things, "a number of outstanding issues regarding the preconditions for the use and operation of Terminal 1 as a private jet terminal". These include delays in the payment of financial obligations to the airport operator.
